The Adventures of S/V Pipe Muh Bligh

Paradise within a Paradise?

2011-09-11T15:01:00.006-04:00

Lifestyles Resort, Confresi Beach, Dominican Republic

Tuesday, September 6 – Saturday, September 10, 2011

Yes, we know. We have a pretty spectacular life. We were fortunate enough to be able to give up our jobs for this cruising lifestyle, and obviously don’t have the same pressures as someone with a 9-to-5 job back home. Still, that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy a few days away from the boat sometimes!

Our Luperon friends who’ve spent a year or more in the DR have been telling us about an all-inclusive resort near Puerto Plata that often offers super deals during the low season…as in “$10, $20, or $30 per person per night” type of deals. The first time the resort offered $10 pp/pn deals, ten cruisers went. The second time it happened, the group got up to 14 people. This time, the offer was $19 if you booked early enough, $29 if you waited. We ended up with 19 people in our group - 17 cruisers, plus two friends of Deana's and Troy's from Houston. Just think of it…for under $160, Rene and I were able to enjoy as much air conditioning, hot showers, a “real” bed, food, and drinks as we wanted…for FOUR DAYS! It was incredible. Seven members of our group took the motorcycles to the resort (a 45-minute ride), and the others squished into a van with all of the luggage. We arrived at the resort around noon, were greeted by froo-froo drinks at the bar, and got our white wrist-bands that allowed us to enjoy the all-inclusive part of the vacation. From there, the group split into those who wanted the full buffet lunch, and those who wanted to try the sushi at the VIP beach. Big surprise, we went with the latter. We hadn’t had sushi since our Houston trip in December; this wasn’t as good as Redfish in Houston, but it wasn’t bad!

Lunch was followed by a lounge on one of the beds and a dip in a hot tub at the VIP beach. Picture this: over fifty beds arranged in the sand on a spot above the beach – some stationary on stilts, some swinging from cables – all complete with white canopies and curtains on all four sides to block out the sun as needed. Amidst the beds were unheated Jacuzzi tubs where you could cool off while sipping on a drink brought to you by one of the many waiters milling around. Hungry? If you didn’t want to leave your bed to go to the sushi bar or the buffet, you could order a sandwich, burger, salad, or chicken wings and have lunch right in your beachside bed. This was the sort of place we’d only seen in magazines. It was amazing to experience it in person!

So how many of you figure there must have been some kind of a catch to such a terrific deal? Well, you were right. Lifestyles, besides being a luxury resort, is a timeshare property. Our friends who had been here before warned us to beware of the runners in white shirts and radios poised on their hips. These were the guys who would shanghai you after breakfast and escort you to the timeshare office, where you would then be turned over to one of the turquoise-shirted sales staff. We’d heard timeshare-presentation horror stories from friends on other vacations, and dreaded the thought of losing half of a beach day sitting in a conference room listening to the spiel. Us? Skeptical? You’d better believe it. Still, we figured we could be polite, especially when our salesman-slash-tour-guide, Harold, introduced himself and led us to a golf cart for a tour around the property. We got to play “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, as we were shown one of the four-bedroom villas (complete with chef and private pool), a presidential suite, the super-exclusive “Serenity Beach” (complete with hammocks, 10’ canopied, pillow-strewn beds, and a slew of cute wait staff), along with a bar and restaurant for members only. We had to admit, while we certainly didn’t consider ourselves resort or timeshare people, we were curious. At the end of the property tour, Harold asked us if we wanted to talk more about it or be on our way with a polite “no”. To our surprise, we found ourselves following him back to the office for a chat. We talked about the different options, and realized that their program might actually be something from which we could benefit. There was no “one or two week per year” restriction, no tie to a single property, and no annual maintenance fees. Pay one start-up fee, and use it as much or as little as you wanted to at any of their 4500 destinations. You’d pay when you used a property – the equivalent of one to two nights’ rental for a week at the property – and that was it. Now you all know how analytical Rene’s mind is; he crunched numbers and looked for any possible downside. We even walked away for 24 hours to talk more and think about it. In the end, we decided that it was a great fit for us. With so many properties in the Caribbean, our families and friends could come down to visit us and not be restricted to the boat. We’re all too aware what hotels cost down-island, and this offered a much more affordable alternative. And when we give up the boat someday to RV around Europe and the US? More places to stay! Bottom line, consider this an invitation. We keep telling everyone to come visit us, and now we have an option for those of you who aren’t comfortable staying on a boat. No more excuses! :-)

So we only thought we were getting royally spoiled before we signed the papers. Once we became official members, they cut off our white bracelets and gave us gold VIP bracelets that let us into the restricted-access beaches, pools, bars, and restaurants. Better yet? They upgraded us to the two-bedroom presidential suite and gave us a golf cart to get back to the rest of our group. We even got two extra gold bracelets so we could bring another couple with us to share the suite. Decisions, decisions… We knew that Deana and Troy wouldn’t want to leave their friends who were visiting from Houston, so Pat and Lucy from Illusions moved over with us. What a blast! We checked out the local pool and private beach, and toured around on the golf cart before joining the rest of the group at the VIP beach. Dinner that night at the Mexican restaurant was so-so, but our dinner at Simply Gourmet the next evening was fantastic. There's already talk of trying to get a bunch of couples into a villa for a few days. We are soooo coming back to this resort next month!

Enjoy pictures here.

Good Night, Irene...

2011-09-11T14:58:00.009-04:00

Saturday, August 20 – Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Luperon, Dominican Republic

Stacy’s great-grandmother, Irene, used to sing that old song, “good night, Irene…good night, Irene…I’ll see you in my dreams.” This week’s “Irene” could’ve been a real nightmare! What is it about us and hurricanes that begin with the letter "I"? Most of you probably know that we went through Hurricane Ike in September, 2008, while we were still in Kemah, Texas. That one was "only" a category 2 storm, but had a cat 5 storm surge. What did that really mean? Our marina suffered an 11+ foot storm surge (the parking lot was under 5’ of water), and hundreds of boats were lost when their fixed and/or floating docks rose higher than their moorings would allow. Our 12' dock pilings barely survived, and we were lucky enough to come away with only minor damage to the boat.

Fast forward to August, 2011... We'd been watching "tropical wave 97", a system that threatened to pay a visit to our part of the Caribbean. Sometime over the weekend, #97 was reborn as "Tropical Storm Irene", with a projected track that came over Puerto Rico and right into our back yard. Mind you, we weren't too worried given Luperon's reputation as a hurricane hole, thanks to the surrounding mountain range and the harbor's protective mangroves. Still... By Saturday, we knew there was a good chance we’d feel some effects of the storm, but initial tracks brought it over the center of the island across the mountains. The good thing about that? While the mountains would likely get 10-20 inches of rain (triggering possible mudslides), they would also break the storm apart and significantly reduce Irene’s wind speed. We prepped Pipe for tropical storm-force winds (30-50 mph expected), taking down the bimini, clearing out the cockpit, and lashing down the kayaks and any other potential projectiles. Unfortunately, by Monday morning, the forecasted track had Irene paralleling the DR’s northern coastline…heading straight for us with no protective mountain peaks to intervene. Suddenly we were facing hurricane-force winds (75+ mph), and had to re-examine our preparations. We’ve probably mentioned this before, but our mooring ball places us less than ten feet from the mangroves at certain wind angles. While it can be quite buggy, this placement is quite a comfort when we’re threatened by bad weather. Apparently it’s also comforting to the entire Puerto Plata fishing fleet, who stormed into the Luperon harbor all day Monday. Half a dozen fishing boats plowed into the mangroves, bow-first, a hundred yards from us. Given our lack of swinging room, we figured things could get a little too cozy if more boats decided to line the mangroves around us. Enter my brilliant husband…Rene decided to back our stern into the mangroves and tie up, while our bow would remain on our mooring ball. This was initially planned as a temporary move to reserve some swinging space; once the fishing fleet got settled and the winds started piping up, we’d cut loose from the mangroves and allow Pipe to swing with the wind. Four lines and a conversation with Storyville later, we all decided that maybe staying anchored to the mangroves wasn’t such a bad idea…did we mention that the powers that be were now forecasting 80-100mph winds? Rene got us secured and then helped Deana and Troy tie Storyville to another cluster of mangroves. With five anchor points, as well as making ourselves a much smaller target for dragging boats, we felt pretty good about the upcoming storm.

One thing people don’t tell you about hurricanes…it’s downright boring waiting for things to happen. All of those stories of hurricane parties? Getting loaded isn’t such a great idea when your “house” can break free and hit (or be hit by) another boat. (We’re such party poopers!) We finished our prep work by lunch time, and sat on the deck watching the fishing boats tie up. Weather.com had projected 60-80mph winds by 6pm, but with the exception of a couple 30mph squalls, the harbor was dead calm until well after sunset. The wind picked up to 30kts around 10pm, and we had our first dragging victim of the night: a 50’ catamaran pulled its mooring out of the mud and drifted down half the length of the harbor. It passed within 15’ of an anchored boat, but finally settled undamaged near the town pier. We tried to get a few cat-naps overnight, but spent most of it awake listening to the boat chatter and weather updates on the VHF. The best news came when we heard that Irene was slowly veering offshore, and was expected to be 30-60 miles out as she passed us. The mangroves certainly lived up to their reputation, and we heard more than felt the gusts that came with Irene’s bands. Although winds near the eye exceeded 100mph and 10’ waves crashed outside the mouth of Luperon harbor, there was rarely more than a few ripples around us.

Tuesday morning was a bit more exciting, as the eye passed north of us around 10am. Winds picked up to 25-35kts for the better part of two hours, and a number of boats began dragging around the harbor. Dinghies went zooming to offer assistance whenever possible, and the crew at Marina Tropical helped a number of dragging boats. Fortunately no one was hurt, and none of the boats suffered any major damage. For the most part, Irene was, thankfully, a non-event for us. We were free of the mangroves and swinging back on our mooring by Wednesday morning, and were looking forward to going into town to see how Luperon itself fared. Jerry hosted a "Good Night Irene" post-hurricane potluck party on Wednesday night, where the Barcelo rum flowed all too freely, and everyone brought some tasty treats.

We also know that Irene hasn’t finished her journey yet; she’ll likely be a category 3 or possibly 4 hurricane as she bombards the Bahamas on her way to the East Coast. Our thoughts are with the many people we met in the Exumas and Abacos, as well with our cruising friends in the Carolinas. We’ll keep an eye on the weather sites over the next few days, and hope everyone stays safe and sound.

Home Again!

2011-09-11T14:56:00.006-04:00

Luperon, Dominican Republic

Thursday, August 4 – Friday, August 19...plus Saturday, August 27, 2011

I’m hooooome! It’s great to be back on Pipe Muh Bligh with Rene and Tux. Our lives settled back into the old routine soon after I got back home. We spent a lot of time combing through the piles of stuff I brought back with me, and even longer trying to figure out where to put it all! One new item to welcome me home was the brand new muelle, or dinghy dock. The government finally came through with a reconstruction project, so we’ll save our fund-raising money for future repairs. Finally…no more risking life and limb to get to and from town!

The first packages from home that were put to good use were our Eagles Nest Outfitters nylon hammocks. A few of our friends have them, and we had two shipped to Seattle last month. We brought them with us on a motorcycle ride to a beach west of town, and six of us hung our hammocks under the sea grape trees. There’s something really special about listening to the waves lap on the beach and the wind rustle through the leaves, while you gently rock a few inches above the sand. We had a repeat performance at El Castillo beach a few days later, and knew this was becoming our favorite new habit.

Not to become too lazy, we planned a trip up to the 27 waterfalls of Damajagua. The “waterfalls” are actually a series of natural pools set in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. You take a very long, very hot hike to the top of one of the mountains, carrying your protective gear – a helmet and life jacket – with you. At the top is pool #26, whose cool waters feel heavenly after the hike you’ve just done. If you’re more adventurous, you can use a rope to climb a rock up to #27 and the 10-foot jump into the pool. (By the way, whether the pools are numbered by actual pools or jump-off points is anyone’s guess.) From there, you work your way back down the mountain, swimming, hiking, sliding, and jumping through streams from one pool to the next. It’s an incredible experience, and should be on everyone’s “must-do” list when visiting the DR. If you’re worried about the physical nature of the trip, don’t be. Each group goes with one or two guides who pull you up as needed and show you the safest spots for jumping. These guys are in terrific shape, and are used to taking kids, seniors, and everyone in between. If you’re not up for all 27 falls, there are packages to do only the first seven or twelve falls. Now if you possess a fear of heights, that’s a different story. Many of the jumps are 10-15 feet high, and two are closer to 25-30 feet. Rene loved it, but Stacy needed some serious coaxing for the really high ones. (It was scary!) The trip probably took three hours, and we were more than ready for a cold cerveza when we got back to Luperon!

Friday night, we attended our first dinner dance at Puerto Blanco Marina. The marina recently put in pizza ovens (woo hoo!), and were offering “you call it” pizzas for 400 pesos. We got an “everything but the kitchen sink”, complete with minced habaneros. Yummy! The evening entertainment started with a local Dominican dance troupe, and the cruisers got into the mix after enough adult bevvies were imbibed. We all had a great time, and look forward to the next marina event.

That’s it for now…things could get a bit hectic over the next few days. We have a tropical “wave” brewing in the Caribbean that everyone has their eyes on. More on that next time…

P.S. We have to wish our friend, Larry, a very happy birthday. He threw one heck of a party at a local Luperon hot spot on Aug. 27th, complete with TWO roasted pigs and all the Luperon trimmings. The entire harbor showed up along with some friends from Gringo Hill, and we all had a fantastic time. It doesn't quite fit in with our hurricane blog (following this one), so we've tucked the birthday bash, a.k.a. "Larry-stock", here. Thanks again, Larry!

Waterfall pictures: here

LarryStock pictures: here

Where the Heck is Rene? (aka Playing Bachelorette in the Pacific Northwest)

2011-08-18T15:05:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, July 13 – Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Author’s note: Okay, this is seriously weird. I (Stacy) am about to get on a plane to Seattle to spend the next three weeks with my family, while Rene stays back in Luperon with Tux and Pipe. We haven’t spent more than a few hours apart in nearly three years, and now this??? As much as we would’ve loved for Rene to come with me, we couldn’t make it work this time. There’s no such thing as a kennel for Tux in Luperon, and our boat generator has been on the fritz. We would’ve been hard-pressed to inconvenience a friend to run the gen 2-3 hours a day under normal circumstances; to do so when it was overheating every other day was a no-go. Sooo…here we are, separated by 4,000 miles with spotty internet for Skype-ing. We’ve both got busy schedules planned, with me going RV-ing in Canada and Rene exploring the Dominican countryside on his motorcycle. I’ll post a blog about my Seattle trip, and hopefully Rene will post something about his adventures soon. Enjoy!

There’s something special about seeing a familiar face as you step off the jetway…especially in today’s world of “ticketed passengers only” beyond airport security. Mom flew in from Spokane an hour before I arrived, so she was able to get out to the United terminal to meet me at my gate. After a huge hug, we gabbed all the way to the taxi stand where we got a taxi out to Grandpa’s place. After lunch and a bit of down time, we drove out to my aunt and uncle’s to pick up Grandpa. He’d gotten a bad burn (3^rd degree…skin grafts and all) in a kitchen accident two months before, and had been alternating between staying with them and staying at his home when Mom was in town. I knew he was in good hands, but was anxious to see him in person to see his progress for myself. We spent the first three days in Seattle with Grandpa, catching up and playing cribbage when we weren’t out shopping. It’s surprisingly difficult to find simple things like shorts and swimsuits in the Bahamas and the DR!

Mom and I left for Spokane on Sunday, where I was greeted by a monster stack of boxes in the guest room. Talk about Christmas in July! Rene’d had a dozen things sent to Spokane – hooray for Amazon! – and I spent an hour opening boxes filled with new hammocks, shoes, DVDs, cameras, a heat exchanger to cure our sick generator, air and water filters, foreign-language books, etc. I began to wonder how I would ever fit everything in my suitcase, but that was a problem for another day. Tuesday morning we packed up Mom and Ken’s RV – complete with their 55-pound basset hound, Mini Moo – for the 200-mile drive to Kimberly, located just across the Idaho-Canadian border in British Columbia. We stayed in a lovely spot, and had our first wildlife experience thanks to a doe nibbling grass in the campsite next to us.

Wednesday morning, we continued on to Banff, Alberta, where we would stay for next week along with Ken’s daughter and her family. Banff is such a beautiful town, surrounded by the massive peaks of the Canadian Rockies. There’s a little bit of everything – from shopping, pub crawling, and dining in town to sightseeing and hiking on one of twenty different trails around Banff. If you go a little further out of town, you can find hundreds more trails of differing lengths and difficulties. After settling into the Tunnel Mountain RV Park, Mom and I stretched our legs with a dog-walk down a nearby trail to the Hoodoos. We enjoyed beautiful views of the valley and the Banff Springs Hotel in the distance before coaxing a very stubborn Mini Moo back to the campsite. Lazy dog!

Friday morning we decided to take the “Minnewanka Loop”, which circled past Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake, Johnson Lake, and the Cascade Ponds. Lake Minnewanka, aka “Lake of the Water Spirit”, is the largest body of water in Banff National Park. There was once a village in the basin of the lake, but it was flooded in 1941 when the dam was built. If you’re willing to brave the 35-degree water, you can SCUBA down to see the remnants of the town. We wandered along the lakeshore, but decided to spare Moo (yeah, right) from having to make the 3-mile hike around the entire lake.

After our visit to Lake Minnewanka, we continued on along the rest of the loop. The loop had been a favorite spot when Rene and I visited Banff years ago, thanks to a huge cluster of bighorn sheep who were often seen lounging on the side of the road. The guide books said they were still frequent visitors to the area, but apparently they weren’t in the mood to play. A drive up to Mount Norquay also failed to deliver so much as a chipmunk (although the lookout’s view of downtown Banff was as gorgeous as ever), and we began to wonder if our big wildlife adventure would be a bust.

Saturday we headed to Sunshine Meadows, which straddled the Continental Divide and the Alberta-British Columbia border 7,300 feet above sea level. The meadows could only be accessed via a shuttle bus from the Sunshine Ski Resort’s parking lot, and seemed well worth the trip with their promise of 300+ species of wild flowers on display in the summertime. We rose 300 feet over a mile-long hike to a lake, and spotted perhaps ten different species of flowers (not to mention a family of mountain goats on the road to the ski resort). Unfortunately, our forecast of “partly cloudy” turned into “showers”, and we were pelted by raindrops once we reached the lake. We managed to spend a little over an hour hiking through the meadows before we took shelter in the cafeteria with some much-needed hot chocolate.

Sunday we welcomed our first beautiful, sunny day in Banff. We headed north to Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway, a road that paralleled the main highway and was known as a good spot for seeing wildlife. The road lived up to its reputation, as we saw a herd of bighorn sheep and three velvet-horned elk in the first 10 miles. En route to Lake Louise, we stopped off at Johnston Canyon for a brief (20-minute) walk to the Lower Falls, where we took in breathtaking views of the towering trees and the river below. Dogs were even allowed on the trails, and Moo was quite popular as people admired (okay, giggled at) her short little legs. She was a trooper, and had a great time sniffing out the chipmunks along the trail.

We reached Lake Louise around 2pm, and were blown away by the sheer number of people in the area. We’d been anxious to take advantage of the good weather, and apparently everyone else had the same idea. What a mob! There were families everywhere, all vying for a spot along the shoreline for that perfect photo op. Cars were parked up to a mile away from the lake, so Ken dropped us off before finding a paid spot in the hotel’s garage. We wandered along the lake, walked through the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and people-watched on a bench near the canoe rentals. We finally got tired of the crowds, and took a leisurely drive back to Banff – again via the Bow Valley Parkway. There were more elk feeding along the roadside, and we even had the good fortune to see a black bear running across the road a quarter-mile in front of us! I couldn’t get a good picture before he ran into the woods, but it was an incredible sight.

Monday started with another gorgeous sunny morning, and Carrie, Morgan, and Emily invited us to their campsite for a Dutch-oven breakfast. Morgan has become quite adept at cooking in the Dutch oven, and his bacon-egg-potato casserole was terrific. Later we wandered into town, where I spent some quality time at Starbucks on the internet while Mom and Ken visited the local Laundromat. Morgan cooked ribs in the Dutch oven for dinner, and Kenny grilled steaks. What a feast!

Tuesday we left Banff and overnighted in Kimberly before returning to Spokane on Wednesday. We did some clean-up and shopping on Thursday before making the five-hour drive over the mountain pass to Seattle on Friday. The rest of the Seattle trip was filled with family dinners, a shopping and lunch extravaganza with my sis, Andie, and her two daughters, and lots and lots of packing. As much as I loved spending time with my family, I was more than ready to get back to Rene, Tux, and the boat. There was just one problem…Tropical Storm Emily had formed near Martinique and was making her way towards the Dominican Republic! Having been mostly offline in Banff and Spokane, I had no idea that Emily was out there until Rene mentioned it on Monday. By Tuesday, Emily had the DR directly in her sights, and even threatened to pass fairly closely to Luperon. After a few stressful hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, it began to appear that Emily would pass along the southern edge of the island. Other than a few clouds and some showers, we hardly knew she was there. My flight landed safely (and even early!), and Rene came to the airport with a couple of our friends to meet me. It was good to be home!

Please enjoy more pictures here.

Trial separation? (JUST KIDDING!)

2011-07-13T16:30:00.005-04:00

Thursday, June 30 - Wednesday, July 13 2011

How scary is this: since we started cruising in March 2009 Stacy and myself have been apart for less than 15 hours. Now Stacy is going to Seattle for 3 weeks while I take care of Tux, the boat, boat projects, Spanish lessons, riding my motorcycle and trying to enjoy myself (not necessarily in that order of course!)

Anyway .... not much happening in the last 2 weeks except for the July 4th party at Wendy's and a happy hour / pot luck on Pipe Muh Bligh for 12 people. It turns out the only way we ever clean the boat is when we invite people over so there you have it!

The July 4th celebration at Wendy's was a lot of fun. There was a 250 pesos entry fee, which was immediately donated back to the dinghy fund, and there was a pot luck where the cook was expected to use local cheese only. In addition Wendy's provided great hot dogs with all the trimmings and various side dishes. There was a really good turn out and Stacy's cheese enchiladas received 2nd place honors in the pot luck. Personally I think she got robbed! After consuming a lot of drinks and plenty of solid food Troy played a good set of music and we all had a great time.

A couple of days later we hooked up with Dan and we took the 4 motorcycles out for another trip to El Castillo. It's an easy trip with barely any off-road so it's a great trip if the girls are coming along. We brought swimsuits, towels and hammocks and made a great day of it. Dan showed us the way to a secret beach where we had the place for ourselves. Troy and Gary put up the hammocks and tried for a nap. Riding a motorcycle sure makes for tired bodies! Afterwards we followed Dan to Nina's restaurant in El Castillo where we all enjoyed a terrific lunch. We're surely going to return there!

Too make sure Stacy would stress out enough before her trip to Seattle she decided that we needed a happy hour / potluck on Pipe Muh Bligh. Guests were Deana & Troy (Storyville), Gary (Pala Ola), Jerry (owner of JR's Bistro Tropical), Barbara & Dan (Another Way), Ken & Glennis (Galatea) and Lisa & Cade (Sand Dollar). Everybody brought something great to eat and as usual the alcoholic beverages flowed freely. The evening was long, the night short and according to an unofficial poll taken by me the next way we had a 100% hangover rate! Fun was had by all.....

And now I am a temporary bachelor. I can't believe that I am going to not see Stacy for 3 full weeks. But I am ready for it thanks to my Spanish lessons: "No gracias, estoy felizmente casado".

More pictures here

Luperon, Dominican Republic, Part II

2011-07-08T14:08:00.003-04:00

Sunday, June 19 – Wednesday, June 29, 2011

As Rene said in a Facebook post, “Luperon puts the ‘tired’ in ‘retired’!” With yoga and water aerobics three times a week, Spanish classes twice a week, the vegetable market Tuesday mornings, the cruiser net Wednesday and Sunday mornings, Troy singing and playing guitar at JR’s on Saturdays, the cruiser swap meet on Sundays, and daily to every-other-day internet lunches or dinners at JR’s, Steve’s Place, or the Upper Deck, we’re wiped out. (And we haven’t even made it to the bi-weekly dinner/dances at Puerto Blanco Marina or movie night on Monday and Tuesday at Wendy’s Bar!) We’ve been on the go since we got here, and there’s no sign of it stopping. Not that we’re complaining! We’ve been having a fantastic time in Luperon, and are eager to see more and more of the island. A number of cruisers have stepped up to introduce us to their favorite spots outside of Luperon, and we’ve been thrilled to share the experiences.

Lisa from Sand Dollar organized another lunch to Olivo’s after Sunday’s swap meet, this time with her husband, Cade, and their friends, Derek and Esther, who own an apartment in town and some land up in the mountains. Eleven of us managed to cram ourselves into two vehicles, and off we went. That afternoon, Lisa, Derek, and Esther arranged for us all to spend the following Tuesday together at Derek and Esther’s property. We rented a car from a local outfit, and followed Lisa and Cade up the mountain. Only 14 miles away as the crow flies, the property took an hour to reach via the pothole-ridden roads. We’d been warned, thanks to Ann Vanderhoof’s books, “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” and “Spice Necklace” that we were almost assured of getting a flat tire when renting a car in Luperon. We just hadn’t expected it to happen so fast! Rene had been swerving to avoid deep holes in the road for 20 minutes; we weren’t even as far as Imbert when we felt the car begin to shimmy. “FLAT!” We pulled over to the side of the road, and the guys worked together to get the spare tire in place. An examination of the flat tire showed a crack in the rim, and we knew we couldn’t chance going all the way up to the mountain on our little bubble spare. Cade knew of a welder in Imbert, so off we went. Two hours and 2,000 pesos ($60 – nearly twice the cost of the rental car) later, we were on our way up the mountain again. We reached the property shortly after noon, and enjoyed breathtaking views as we walked among banana trees, avocado trees, and young coffee plants spread across the acreage. We could hear chickens scratching in the brush, and local boys would wave as they passed by on horses or donkeys. A local woman made a Dominican lunch of chicken, rice, and beans, which tasted great with a couple of cold cervezas. Even better, the 2500’ elevation made for temperatures 10-12 degrees cooler than in Luperon. What a perfect day!

Lisa arranged a girls’ day out later that week to Puerto Plata, where we hunted for sea glass on the beach, avoided a herd of cattle wandering along the main road, had lunch at a local hangout, and went grocery shopping at Supermarcado Tropicale and La Sirena. Once again, we stopped along the side of the road on our way back to Luperon for mangoes, along with key limes and the first avocados of the season. (By the way…where else can you buy an avocado for 30 cents apiece? Yep, still loving it here…)

The week also brought about a series of fund-raisers designed to raise money for Luperon’s town dinghy dock. The dock was repaired three years ago (again, by cruisers), and is now shaped something like a deteriorating roller coaster. Three people have been hurt in the past few months, one of whom broke her leg in two places when she fell through the loose boards. As frustrated as we’ve all been at the government’s refusal to do anything, we’ve also had to remind ourselves that we aren’t in the US anymore. (As some have told us, money earmarked for one thing often finds itself used for something else…like, perhaps, a government official’s new car.) Jerry, a new friend who lives on his boat, Nauti-ness, and runs JR’s Bistro Tropical in town, has been spear-heading the fund-raising efforts. A few of us had pledged money and carpentry skills for the new dock, and a bingo game-slash-bake sale was scheduled for Thursday night. Deana made mini-French bread loaves, and Stacy baked a coconut rum cake. The evening was a great success, and set the stage for Saturday night’s event: an auction to sell items generously donated by the cruising community. Rene and Troy each bought a boat knife, Deana bought an under-water camera, we got a beautiful brass barometer, and Anchor Management Steve (who’d recently arrived back in Luperon on a boat delivery) bought a float-turned-art object that we could all sign and hang under JR’s tiki roof. After the goods were sold, Troy followed up with a set on his guitar, and Deana and Stacy even offered up their cooking services with...what else? French bread, rum cake, and chili, of course! In the end, the event raised somewhere close to 15,000 pesos (about $400), and we were slowly approaching our goal. One of the other Luperon bars has scheduled a fund-raiser for July 4^th, so hopefully that’ll clinch it. Thanks to recent trade winds that have bashed the local fishing boats against the dock, the boards are sagging more than ever and the dock is practically sideways. We really need a new one!

Perhaps the highlight of the past two weeks (but really, how can you choose just ONE?) was a motorcycle trip organized by Barbara and Dan on Another Way. It started out as one of those ideas you have over a few drinks…in this case, JR’s first dinghy-dock fund raiser, a poker-run/pub-crawl that was held a couple of weeks ago. Dan and Barbara have had a motorcycle here in Luperon for over a year, and just upgraded (from 125 to 150cc) to a new off-road model. The new bike is perfect for running around on the DR’s bumpy roads, and Troy has been awfully tempted to get one. Rene has resisted so far, but we figured a motorcycle tour would give us a great chance to see more of the island. Barbara talked to Manny (a DR local who lived in the States for most of his live and only recently returned), who arranged for us to rent bikes from the local motoconchos (young guys on 125cc bikes who take you around for a small fee). Apparently the excitement over a motorcycle tour spread like crazy, because we had quite the little gang by the time we met up in front of the Upper Deck restaurant on Monday morning: besides ourselves, there were Deana and Troy (Storyville), Barbara and Dan (Another Way), Ken and Glenis (Gallatea), Barbara and Gary (Pa’La O’La), Steve (Anchor Management), Ted (About Time), Manny, Jerry (Nauti-ness/JR’s), John (Bright Eyes), and Larry (Triton). Manny, John, Jerry, and Dan, all having their own bikes, held strategic points ahead of and behind our caravan, and did a terrific job of keeping us newbies from getting into trouble. We made a massive loop out of Luperon, with stops at the beaches of El Castillo and Punta Rocia. Ken and Glenis ran out of fuel, Steve got a flat tire, and there were a few sore bums thanks to a general lack of shock absorbers. Fortunately, everything was easily fixed, and no one got hurt. We had a fabulous time, and are talking about making this a monthly excursion. The only problem? The outing pretty much clinched Troy’s desire to get a bike, and Gary quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Now you know we can’t be left behind while everyone else goes out and has fun, right?? So…the boys are heading to Imbert over the weekend with Manny to see if they can cut a deal on three motorcycles. Before the moms get too nervous, we should reiterate: these are 150cc motorbikes with off-road tires and suspension. We won’t go very fast and will stay out of the big cities. Okay? We’ll keep you posted!

Please enjoy more pictures here.

Finding a Routine in Luperon, Dominican Republic

2011-07-08T14:06:00.003-04:00

Monday, May 30, 2011 – Saturday, June 18, 2011

Wow. Once again, it’s been over a month since we posted a blog. You’ve all heard the various excuses each time we’ve gotten busy, lazy, etc., so we won’t even bother coming up with new ones. Suffice it to say, Luperon has quickly become “home”, and we’ve fallen in love with this beautiful country. Still, you know how you rarely take pictures in your daily life unless something special happens? Well, the same rule applies here. Thank goodness Deana (Storyville) has been more diligent in her picture-taking, so we’ve been able to snag a few of her shots to include in our blog. We should probably warn you…over the next few months, you’ll likely see fewer blog posts unless something really exciting is going on. Otherwise, you’d read about destinations like “water aerobics”, “yoga”, “Spanish class”, “Steve’s Place”, and “JR’s” over and over again! Anyway, we’ll try to recap the past month to give you a taste of life in Luperon, and will share new adventures as promptly as we can in the future.

Woo hoo! We’ve finally made it to Luperon, Dominican Republic – the sleepy little town that we’ll call “home” for the next five months. We began our stay in Luperon with a bang, attending the weekly cruiser swap meet and celebrating our arrival with Storyville via a pub crawl, Luperon-style (Steve’s Place, Wendy’s Bar, and JR’s Bistro Tropicale). After a party-filled weekend, we realized just how easy it would be to fall into a habit of cheap cervezas and 100-peso lunches served under the tiki hut; we quickly decided we needed to get into some sort of routine that first week. Priority #1? Location, location, location. We had been given a temporary mooring by Papo, the local go-to guy, but knew we wanted something more permanent (not to mention sturdier to survive the 20+ knot trade winds). Papo came by Monday morning and worked with Rene to find a spot between Storyville and the mangroves that would keep us out of the swinging radius of a nearby derelict boat. Rene watched Papo and Handy Andy dive down to place the mooring screw, and was told that it needed to “stew” for a few days before we could get on it. Translation: we’d need to stay on our temporary mooring until Thursday or Friday, at which point we’d move to our new spot. That done, we headed up the hill to Casa La Roca to attend our first water aerobics class with Jeanette from Sea Lion. Feel the burn! Monday afternoon we skipped lunch and cervezas at Steve’s Place, opting instead for sandwiches on the boat. We wanted to be clear-headed for our first Spanish lesson that afternoon at 4pm! Rosa Van Sant, jewelry-maker, artist, and wife of cruising-guide-writer Bruce, organized beginner’s Spanish lessons on Mondays and Fridays for a whopping 150 pesos (about $4) per person per class. Fifteen of us signed up at the swap meet, and we were looking forward to expanding our vocabulary beyond the typical tourist “dos cervezas, por favor” (two beers, please) and “donde es el bano” (where’s the bathroom?). Classes were held at Puerto Blanco Marina, and Rosa figured out who qualified for the beginner vs. intermediate groupings. We obviously needed the beginner’s course, and were soon assigned to Rosa’s friend, Natalie. She focused on pronunciation and some simple vocabulary and phrases for our first lesson, and was a terrific instructor.

Tuesday morning we met Jeanette at the muelle (moo-AY-yay), or town dock. She had taken us under her wing to help us get set up with a local cell phone, internet, and check-cashing service. We agreed to start the morning at the weekly vegetable market, basically a city block where the produce delivery trucks sold directly to the public. We were blown away by the sheer variety: plantains still on their stalks, massive eggplants, red peppers, green “seasoning” peppers (milder than bell peppers), carrots, chayote, passion fruit, pineapples, bananas, onions, garlic, cilantro, oregano, scallions, tomatoes, broccoli…and much, much more. Everything was grown within a few miles of town, and we filled up a shopping bag for under $5. Bananas? Three for 10 pesos (about 25 cents). Mangoes? Three for 20 pesos. Fresh pineapple? 30 pesos. After being gouged in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, it’s going to take us awhile to get used to the local prices!

We followed up our shopping run with breakfast at the Upper Deck, where Jeanette introduced us to the owners, Sybille and Ralph. Sybille does all of the cooking herself, and Ralph is known as the local expert for any diesel engine problems we may have. Breakfast was followed by a trip to the local cell phone store, Claro, which brought a whole new meaning to “island time” and “red tape”. We wanted to get a local “pay-as-you-go” cell phone since we’ll be here for five months. Simple, no? Not even close. They required a local driver’s license to purchase a phone, so Jeanette borrowed a friend’s ID. A half-hour later, after the friend was long gone, Claro’s home office wanted more information from her. No info, no phone. A stranger ultimately stepped in and offered to vouch for us with his own information, and 90 minutes later, we finally had a phone.

Tuesday afternoon brought quite a surprise when Steve on Anchor Management showed up after a three-day crossing from the Virgin Islands. We had seen his SPOT earlier in the day, and thought it would be another day before he arrived. We must’ve misread something, because he was in the harbor and rafted up to Storyville by 3pm! After clearing in, he joined us all for customary grande Bohemias and 100-peso dinners at Capt. Steve’s Place. Anchor Management Steve (as opposed to restaurateur-Steve) headed back to the States a few days later, but it was great to see him again even for a short visit.

Wednesday we managed to be up, out, and at the yacht club by 8am for our first yoga class. Rene had done some yoga in the past, but this was a total first for Stacy. Let’s just say someone needed to work on her balance! We followed yoga up with water aerobics and then a breakfast of fresh mangoes and pineapple back on Pipe, setting the stage for what would become our typical Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine.

The following Sunday, Lisa from Sand Dollar took us on a wonderful tour of the surrounding area after the cruiser swap meet. We hunted for sea glass at a local beach, drove through the outlying villages, got a view of the ocean near El Castillo, and had lunch at nearby Olivo’s. Lunch was followed up with a drive to an observation point above the Luperon Harbor entrance, which boasted spectacular views of the ocean and mountains. The harbor is shaped somewhat like an upside-down “Y”, with us at the southwest corner of it. We could just see our mast in the distance, scattered among the other 100 boats in the harbor. From this vantage point, observing the thick mangroves that outline the entire harbor, we could easily see why Luperon is considered such a safe “hurricane hole” for so many boaters.

Numerous cruisers had touted the shopping mecca of nearby Puerto Plata, so we hired a taxi van and driver during our second week in town. Jeanette played tour guide for the six of us (Pipe, Storyville, and Pa’La O’La), and we had a full day: stops at a marine supply store, an English bookstore (unfortunately, closed), a Napa-like store, a DR version of a dollar store, a tour through the amber museum (where we drank the local grog, Mamajuana, and Deana tried her hand at cigar-rolling), lunch at a German spot on the Malecon, a walk through the parc central (town square) and the cathedral, a trip to Casa Nelson for clothes shopping, and finally to La Sirena, the closest thing to a Super Wal-Mart that the DR has. Think groceries, home goods, electronics, liquor, etc. We were in heaven! On the way home, we stopped along the side of the road to buy mangoes from a local man: 100 pesos (under $3) for a bucket-full – about 30 mangoes in total. We split them up among the three boats, and spent the next week trying to figure out how many ways we could eat/cook mangoes before they went bad. Mango ice cream, anyone?

The next week brought even more activities, starting with a potluck dinner aboard Pipe. Barbara from Pa’La O’La, Jeanette from Sea Lion, Alexis, Ryan, and Luma from Ventana, and Pam and Steve from Zephia were all heading back to the States for visits, so this was our last chance to get everyone together before the mass exodus. We managed to fit twelve on the boat for a spaghetti dinner, complete with all the trimmings. We had a great night and hope the others all have a fantastic time on their travels. We know water aerobics won’t be the same without little Luma’s smiling face!

We had a double-header of events on Thursday and Friday, with a fund-raiser at JR’s and a full moon party at Marina Tropical. Jerry at JR’s has been spear-heading efforts to raise money to rebuild Luperon’s sagging dinghy dock, and he organized a poker-run pub-crawl on Thursday that took about 20 of us from the Upper Deck to Capt. Steve’s Place, to Wendy’s Bar, then next door to El Pechichi’s, and finally to JR’s to end the night. Troy was the big winner with a full house, and Rene got second place with a three of a kind. We had a blast and enjoyed getting to spend more time with Jerry and the other cruisers.

Friday, the Marina Tropical hosted a masquerade-themed full moon party, complete with free hot dogs and a massive bonfire. Gary (Pa’La O’La) showed off his creative side, teaching us all how to make our own goat masks out of construction paper and hot glue guns. We spent the afternoon at Steve’s Place on Thursday attracting the attention of every child within a half-mile radius as we put the masks together, and were constantly repeating “caliente, caliente” to the kids who wanted to use the glue gun. The “chivos locos” made their grand appearance at the full moon party on Friday night (the only problem – we forgot to bring straws so we could drink through the masks!), and we happily donated the masks to the local kids after we were done. We had a terrific time making them, and can only hope they have as much fun playing with them.

The past month has also been a time for things to break. (Yep, we know – such is life on a boat.) First, our generator overheated and wouldn’t run. Rene finally figured out that the coolant had gunked up at the bottom of the fill tank and was failing to get to the gen. It’s a good thing we have pipe cleaners on board! He fixed that, but thought we might still have a minor leak somewhere in the system. (As long as we keep a close eye on the coolant levels, we should be okay.) Next, we had a wire short out behind our generator control panel; apparently it wasn’t connected well, and smoldered to the point that it blackened and died. Thanks to the short, the generator selector switch is now stuck in the “on” position (again, it’s a lot better than the alternative). What’s that about things coming in threes? One morning we got up to start the gen, and got nothing but a clicking sound when we pressed the start button. Rene read the surprisingly helpful Westerbeke operator’s manual, and determined that it could be the starter battery (best case, since we could likely get one here), or it could be the alternator or the starter itself (worst case – either would’ve required a shipment from the US). We borrowed Pa’La O’La’s 12-foot-long jumper cables and connected the gen’s starter battery to the boat’s house batteries just like we’d do for a car; fortunately, the gen started right up. Thanks to a new starter battery purchased at Puerto Blanco Marina, we were back in business. We got lucky with a boat repair for a change!

We also had a major electronics loss, thanks to Rene’s slippery shoes. After our great introduction to Puerto Plata, we managed to get all of our purchases from the dinghy to the boat without incident. The only things left to move were Rene and his backpack. Did either of us think of putting the backpack aboard before he stepped out of the dinghy? Of course not. Whether it was wearing tennis shoes for the first time in months, or just hitting a slippery spot on the stern, Rene’s foot slipped and he fell into the drink…still wearing the backpack, which contained our good camera, our small everyday camera, and our 9-day-old Dominican cell phone. Damn, damn, damn! On the bright side, Rene was fine (other than needing a shower to wash off the lovely Luperon water). The cameras and cell phone, on the other hand, were toast. After trying the usual tricks (shaking the water out, submerging everything in rice, using a hair-dryer, etc.), Rene declared everything “DOA” and logged onto Ebay to see how expensive his swim would turn out to be. (Let’s not go there…) The real kicker? The local cell phone company wouldn’t let us buy another phone without a Luperon resident…even though it was a replacement phone for the one we’d just bought. (You’ve GOT to be kidding.) Fortunately we’d been here long enough to become friends with a few more locals; Abel, a terrific guy who runs a local market, agreed to accompany Rene to Claro to get a new phone. It took a few days, but we were finally back in business.

We’ve got a busy week planned, with a group lunch back at Olivo’s, a trip up to the mountains, and some fund-raisers to benefit our sagging dinghy dock. More on those things later… Til next time!

Please enjoy more pictures here.

First Impressions of Luperon, Dominican Republic

2011-05-31T17:39:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 28 – Sunday, May 29, 2011

We can’t believe it – we’re really here! We had an easy overnight trip from South Caicos, and arrived at the entrance to Luperon Harbor shortly after sunrise. Our only hiccup was a tricky entry into the harbor thanks to a faulty chart plotter chip. Our Navtech chips have been trusty companions for over two years, but the map of Luperon is a total mess. The land masses are a quarter-mile off of reality, meaning our GPS waypoints look like they’re forcing us over land instead of safely weaving us through the shallow spots. Harbor depths on the chart show 96-120 feet, when the truth is 15-20. (That makes quite a difference when you’re supposed to put out seven times the depth amount when dropping your anchor!) We managed to sound our way in following the waypoints and our cruising guide (trying our best to ignore anything on the chart plotter), and rafted up to Storyville until Papo and “Handy Andy” came by at 8am to assign us a mooring. What a great pair; Papo and Andy can rent you a mooring, bring you gas, diesel, or water (washing or drinking quality), get you a rental car, organize a waterfall tour, clean your boat bottom, or provide a dozen other services the visiting cruisers might need. We paid $250 up front for five months on a mooring ball – well worth it not to have to put our anchor in the quicksand-like mud that makes up the bottom of the anchorage. Papo even agreed to install a new mooring for us, one that was bigger than our initial one and closer to Storyville.

Next up was a trip into town to clear customs…or should we say customs, immigration, harbor entry, agriculture, and the Navy Commandante, followed by a trip back to the boat with two Navy “inspectors”. Each office meant new paperwork and more fees, and we were $93 poorer when we were through. Still, that’s a whole lot better than the Bahamas’ $300 cruising permit!

After taking the Navy boys back to shore, we joined Storyville at Captain Steve’s Bar and Restaurant in town. Steve and his wife, Annie, run the place that has become a cruiser staple in Luperon. They have a pool, shower, free wi-fi, grande cervesas (big beers) for under $2, and daily specials like bacon cheeseburger and fries, grouper fingers, fried chicken, Thai pork, chili, or spaghetti Bolognese, all for 100 pesos (about $3). We each had a great lunch and beer, all for $11 per couple. Supposedly you can eat further out of town for even less. No wonder so many cruisers come down here and end up staying! A couple can easily live here on $1000 a month. We’ve met two single-handers who do it for $500-550. We can’t wait to go to the vegetable market on Tuesday morning; the delivery trucks line everything up along the sidewalk and you can buy directly from them before the produce gets taken to the stores. Mangoes, papaya, pineapples, broccoli, peppers, and who knows what else for pennies. It’ll be hard not to go crazy!

Sunday we listened to the cruiser’s net to get the run-down on all of the available activities in Luperon: a Sunday morning cruiser swap-meet, watching the Indy 500 on the big screen at Wendy’s Bar, twice-a-week Spanish lessons, Monday-Wednesday-Friday yoga, twice-a-week movie nights at Wendy’s, Thursday lasagna night at the Upper Deck, Friday night dinner and karaoke dance party at the Puerto Blanca Marina… Plus cruisers will announce when they have extra space in a rental car or van going on a major shopping run to nearby Puerto Plata or Santiago. Even with all of the get-togethers, it doesn’t feel nearly as “adult day care” contrived as Georgetown. Maybe it’s because we plan on staying here for five months, or maybe it’s because there are so many other long-term cruiser “residents”; either way, there’s a real community feel to this place, and we think we’re going to love our stay here. People (both locals and cruisers) are so incredibly friendly, and everyone tells us that, with the exception of some minor theft (e.g. don’t leave things in your cockpit or dinghy if you don’t want them to disappear), Luperon is very safe. Somehow we just have to figure out how to say “no” to those humongous beers... Cheers!

Turks & Caicos

2011-05-31T17:35:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, May 17 – Friday, May 27, 2011

Author’s note: You may have noticed that our blog updates have been fewer and farther between, thanks to a recent lack of good internet connections. We’re running a good two weeks behind these days (e.g it’s nearly June 1^st as I finish up the May 17^th blog) as we scramble to get from the Bahamas to Luperon. Once settled in the DR, we hope to find more regular internet service…and become more regular in our blogging!

First of all, a very “Happy Birthday” to Stacy’s mom!

After arriving in Sapodilla Bay soon after sunrise, we managed to stay awake long enough to clear in at customs, walk up to a neighborhood market, and spend some time swimming in the bay. Cruiser karma worked yet again, as we met a terrific family renting one of the homes on the beach. Frank, Angela, and their kids and their partners, Kara, Dave, AJ, Ryan, Brianna, and Bret, were staying in a nearby house for a few days. They graciously invited us up to the house for a tour and drinks the afternoon that we arrived, and welcomed us again for dinner the following night. Frank had filled up a cooler full of meats, and we were completely spoiled by Kobe beef, grilled chicken, sausages, pork loin, burgers, and plenty of trimmings. We had a great time hearing all about AJ and Ryan's upcoming wedding, Kara and Dave's travels, and Brianna's study program in the Middle East. We were truly enchanted by such a warm, close-knit family, and hope we get to see them again someday!

Call us crazy, but the Turks and Caicos has us feeling a little unbalanced. It’s been a “bi-polar” few days for us, with some serious highs and lows. We started on a high, just happy to be here and not moving after our 48-hour trip from Conception. Our excitement was soon dashed when a birthday call to Stacy’s mom revealed that Grandpa had been badly burned in a kitchen accident and was going in for surgery (think ‘excised skin and skin grafts’). He’d finally been admitted into the top trauma/burn hospital in Seattle, and we knew he was surrounded by good people. Still, it was awful waiting for news and hoping he’d come through the surgery alright. He has a few more weeks of recovery ahead of him, but we’re so thankful that he’s in good hands with a terrific team of doctors…and family members!

Once we felt better about Grandpa’s status, we said a temporary goodbye to Storyville and Pa’La O’La and headed to West Caicos for some SCUBA diving. West Caicos is an uninhabited island 10 miles from Provo, and is famous for its wall that lies just a few hundred yards offshore. There are moorings installed at each site that are primarily for commercial dive operators, but cruising boats can use them for diving and even overnight mooring when they’re not being used by the locals. Between our SCUBA guide book and a local website, we found 13 potential dive sites along the five miles of coastline. A cruise down the western shore found only seven actual moorings, but we figured it would be plenty for a few days in the area. We overnighted at “Brandywine”, and made our first dive of the season Monday morning. Woo hoo! Stacy hung off the ladder while Rene got geared up, and was amazed by the fish life right under the boat: jacks, tuna, barracuda, and even a shark in the distance. And that was before we even got down to the reef! We planned to take it slowly since this was our first dive in over a year. Fortunately, diving is a lot like riding a bike – it all comes back to you fairly quickly. We soon found ourselves in sand at a depth of 50 feet, and spent the next half-hour over the reef in 60-70 feet. There were the usual suspects: angel fish, wrasse, cow fish, blue tangs, trumpets, and even the dreaded lion fish. We even had TWO reef sharks pass us a few times as they patrolled their kingdom. Scary? Yes. Gorgeous in their own way? You bet! We had a real treat on the way back to the boat, when a loggerhead turtle came up right next to us. It let us follow it as it looked for nibbles, and we were in such awe that we didn’t spot the monster barracuda until it was right on top of us. It’s hard to judge the size of something when it’s inches away from your face, but we’re pretty sure it was a 5+ footer. All we know is that its head was massive! We moved a half-mile down the shore to “White Face” for an afternoon dive, only to discover that our other two tanks had leaked since the last time we filled them. The result? About 60% full in one tank, and only 20% full in the other. Damn! Rather than spend another hour filling the tanks, we decided to have a short dive using the fullest tanks we had: one-third and two-thirds full. We saw huge angel fish, more groupers, file fish, tux fish, etc., and hated having to turn back after 20 minutes thanks to our air situation. We were so preoccupied with our air levels that we didn’t do a very good job navigating…meaning we wasted a few minutes trying to find the boat. We finally managed to get back, just in time for a late-afternoon rainstorm that lasted, on and off, for four hours. Enough of opening and closing hatches already!

Rene refilled the tanks the next morning, and we motored the quarter-mile to “Driveway”. “Driveway” is supposed to be one of the most popular sites in the area, so we waited until the commercial guys had all selected other moorings before grabbing it for ourselves. What a beautiful dive! We saw a tuna following a reef shark as we made our descent, and were soon following the reef at the top of the wall in 50-60 feet of water. We saw tons of electric blue creole wrasse, … (get fish guide). The highlights of the trip were a green moray eel that came partially out of its hole in the coral to watch us, followed by a tiny black and white juvenile drum fish. Rene would likely add our very curious companion, a six-foot reef shark, to the list of highlights. Stacy, not so much. The damn thing followed us the entire trip back to the boat, disappearing into the murk for a couple of minutes at a time before coming back to get in our faces. Rene managed to stay between it and Stacy the entire time (thanks, honey!), but Stace was scared…uhh, “poop-less”. Seriously, it was within three feet of Rene more than once! (Author’s note: Rene swears it never acted “twitchy”, or aggressive, but I’m not entirely convinced.) After 15-20 minutes of being followed by the dang thing, Stacy was more than ready to get back to the boat. We finally got aboard without incident and moved to “The Gully” after lunch for an afternoon dive. Stacy got into the water at the swim ladder and made a cursory glance around to see what was down there with her. Bad move! An 8-foot lemon shark was patrolling the area along the shore bottom, and it began heading towards the boat a few seconds later. Stacy got out and had Rene check on the shark; it had begun patrolling the bottom again. Stacy got back in, and the shark immediately made a bee-line for the boat. That was enough to put Stace in a panic, and she vetoed the dive. (Our good capitan was NOT pleased, but I just couldn’t do it!) Guess it was time to go back to Sapodilla Bay…

We’d also been keeping in touch with Pa’La O’La (and Storyville, by extension) via SSB radio. Each morning, Barbara and Stacy would talk to each other to catch up and talk about the latest plans for crossing. We agreed to move to South Caicos on Thursday to meet up with the others, and had heard that Saturday would offer a good weather window for the 23-mile crossing of the Columbus Passage (aka Turks and Caicos Passage) to Big Sand Cay. Big Sand Cay is 78 miles from Luperon, and is a much-used staging area for boats heading to the DR. You know what they say about “best laid plans”? Chris Parker’s forecast threw yet another monkey wrench into the works when he warned of 40-50kt squalls that threatened the area through Saturday and Sunday, followed by even more crummy weather the following week. Storyville decided to get out while they had a chance, and left Thursday morning for a nonstop jump to Luperon. Pa’La O’La decided to wait out the weather in South Caicos, and we debated leaving ourselves Friday morning vs. making some side trips with them until we all got another window. We got up at 6:30 Friday morning to listen to Chris Parker, who then managed to scare the bejesus out of us; heavy storms were coming our way starting Saturday night or Sunday, and there was a one in twenty chance that a tropical low would form south of Jamaica the following Wednesday. Bottom line, either leave for Luperon TODAY, or sit out some really crappy weather on the unprotected Turks & Caicos banks. (Did we mention that the crappy weather might prevent a Luperon jump for another 2-3 weeks?) Talk about a no-brainer! We headed into town with Barbara and Gary to check out at the immigration office, and made it back to the boat by 10am. After spending 45 minutes prepping the boat for the 20-hour trip to Luperon, we headed out of Cockburn Harbour and into the Columbus Passage. We saw a few storm clouds shortly after leaving the harbor, but managed to miss out on all but the tail end of a sprinkle. The waves flattened out after the first few hours in the Columbus Passage, and we had a relatively easy motor-sail (and even some real motor-off sailing) until well after sunset. The winds picked up in the wee hours of the morning courtesy of some major storm cells off to port, and we began to see 15-20kts, gusting to 25, by 3am. Stacy had to rouse Rene out of his sleep shift to help roll in the jib, and we spent the next hour trying – successfully, thank god! – to outrun the cells. Fifteen miles out, we began to smell the Dominican Republic – earthy, smoky scents on the winds – and we knew we were almost there.

We plan to stay in Luperon for the next five months, depending on how hurricane season goes. Once we get settled, we’ll try to find more regular internet service so we can update the blog more frequently. We have a feeling the DR will be quite an adventure. Til then!

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011TurksCaicos?feat=directlink

Goodbye, Georgetown…Hello, Out Islands! Or Make That Luperon…Nope. How About Turks and Caicos?

2011-05-21T10:11:00.003-04:00

Thursday, May 12, 2011 – Monday, May 16, 2011

Amazing…we’ve finally done it. We’ve actually left Georgetown! We pulled up anchor in Red Shanks before 7am, and joined Storyville and Pa’La O’La for the 40-mile trip to Conception Island. We had virtually no wind, which made for a smooth ride on the motor – once we got out of the choppy, rolly, confused seas prior to the inlet. As expected, we had a very seasick kitty in the first hour, but he zonked out once we were left to the widely-spaced swells of the Atlantic.

We also – finally – tried our hand at fishing during a crossing. We picked up a plastic yo-yo in Georgetown, and fixed it with a green and yellow lure to hang about 50 feet behind the boat. Three hours later, we hadn’t gotten a nibble, but we heard shouts of “fish on the line” over the VHF from Pa’La O’La – they got a three-foot mahi mahi – and “we got one” (make that a two-foot mackerel) from Storyville. Oh, well, as much as we hoped to hook something ourselves, we were just happy get to share in the spoils – in the form of a fantastic grilled mahi dinner aboard Pa’La O’La that night! We made great time to Conception, and were an hour from our anchorage when a huge line of squalls stopped us in our tracks. We debated trying to outrun the storm, and finally agreed that the best option would be to drop the sails and do doughnuts until the front passed. As LA would say, “that’s what Plato would do!” After an hour, we finally managed to find a hole between three cells and made a quick dash to the anchorage. We could hear other boats reporting a three-foot swell coming into the anchorage, and knew it would be a rolly night. Oh, well…at least we were out of Georgetown!

We spent Friday exploring the highlights of Conception Island: hiking to the Atlantic side to beachcomb and admire the views, dinghying south around the point to watch the turtles swim through the mangroves, and snorkeling over the many coral heads north of the anchorage. Thanks to a sleep-deprived night caused by the swells, we also learned how to make a “swell bridle”, courtesy of Bruce Van Sant’s Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South. The idea is to tie a line from your anchor rode to your stern, thus forcing your boat to point into the swells instead of into the wind (much preferred since the wind-driven waves were negligible). The bridle worked wonders, and we expect to make use of it as we go further south into the Caribbean.

Saturday morning we all woke up for the 6:30am Chris Parker SSB broadcast, assuming we’d get one more forecast under our belts before making the 20-mile trip to Rum Cay. Rum Cay is described as one of the most beautiful islands in the entire Bahamas chain, and we were really excited to go. We knew we probably wouldn’t have time to SCUBA like we initially intended (damn dinghy outboard!), but at least we’d get to see the island. From there, we figured we’d make a few day-hops to Clarence Town, Little Harbour, Landrail Point, Attwood Harbour, Mayaguana, and finally the Turks and Caicos before jumping to our final destination of Luperon in the Dominican Republic. A nice, leisurely trip, right? Not so fast… Pa’La O’La spoke to Chris to get an extended forecast for our southbound jaunt, and the weather guru told us that we needed to get to Luperon by Tuesday or risk not having another weather window open up for at least a couple of weeks. WHAT?!? Damn you, Chris Parker! Okay, not really. Obviously it wasn’t Chris’s fault that Mother Nature was throwing us a curve ball. And we DID have the option of hanging out in the Bahamas for the foreseeable future and hoping that maybe Chris was wrong. Unfortunately, Chris tends to be right more often than not – which explains why so many cruisers have relied on his weather advice for years. So where did that leave us? After a 20-minute VHF conference between the three boats (one punctuated by shell-shocked silence as much as actual conversation), we agreed to make a mad dash to Luperon. No Rum Cay, no leisurely pace down to the Turks & Caicos. Fast and furious, baby! By leaving Saturday morning and going non-stop to Mayaguana, we figured to cover the 120-ish miles in about 24 hours. Giving ourselves a few hours to sleep, we’d then leave Sunday evening for the 50+ mile trip to the Turks and Caicos Bank, arriving just after sunrise so as not to traverse the shallow, coral head-dotted bank in the dark. We’d continue across the bank, trying to reach to Big Sand Cay – 60 miles away in the south-eastern T&C – by nightfall. Big Sand Cay is the usual jumping-off point to Luperon, 80 miles further south. The hitch? Mr. Van Sant, the Bahamas-to-DR cruising guru, recommends making the passage at night and arriving in Luperon just after sunrise to avoid the strong trade winds (and accompanying big waves) that increase throughout the day. So unless we made phenomenal speed across the T&C Bank, we could forget about stopping for a few ZZZZ’s at Big Sand Cay. Bottom line, with the exception of a cat nap in Mayaguana, we’d be making a nonstop run from Conception to Luperon. Whoopee!

So…how did things REALLY turn out? As usual, not quite according to plan. One of our buddy boats heard a knocking noise coming from the engine as we passed Rum Cay, making us wonder if we’d end the big jump before we’d even begun. After some troubleshooting, the engine seemed to be okay, but everyone agreed that running it too hard all the way to Luperon wasn’t a good idea. We ended up making less boat speed than anticipated (Van Sant always recommends adding a 20% padding to any schedule; smart guy!), and started talking about our options. Given the unusually calm sea state, we agreed to try to get as far south as possible. Still, doing 4-4.5 knots meant it took over 32 hours to get to Mayaguana, and close to 48 hours of non-stop motor-sailing (including a few hours of perfect 6-knot REAL sailing) to reach Provo in the T&C. By the time we reached Mayaguana, we were seriously looking for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The real question: would we keep going for another 48 hours (or more) to reach Luperon, or would we stop in Provo and explore the Turks and Caicos until another weather window opened up? The boats were split in their preferences. Storyville was anxious to reach the DR while we still had good weather, while Pa’La O’La wanted to stick with Van Sant’s recommendation to reach Luperon by 8am BEFORE the trade winds picked up. (A good choice; another friend of ours recently made this same trip and said he got himself into trouble every time he didn’t follow Van Sant’s tried and true advice.) There was no way we could reach Luperon before mid-afternoon on Tuesday (day #4) at our current pace, so Barbara and Gary decided they would drop the hook and wait for another window once we reached Provo. And us? We were willing to go all the way to Luperon if the weather and group consensus said so, but we weren’t sure we’d make it before our lack of sleep started resulting in poor judgment calls and Veracruz-like hallucinations. Besides, looking at all the dive sites flagged on the T&C chart really got our mouths watering. We needed a dive fix!

We finally told the others that we were taking a break once we got to Provo. Two boats down, one to go… Troy and Deana held out on the Luperon plan for a few more hours, but finally decided to join the party and see what the Turks and Caicos had to offer. We arrived at Sandbore Channel soon after sunrise and worked our way through the coral heads to Sapodilla Bay. Customs, Immigration, and a nap are all on the agenda – not necessarily in that order. And who knows? As the T&C are a British Crown Colony, maybe we’ll even find a good pub along the way. Cheers!

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasXIII?feat=directlink

(Attempted) Escape from Chicken Harbour: Georgetown, Exumas…Still

2011-05-21T10:09:00.003-04:00

Monday, May 2 – Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Stupid damn dinghy! I know, not the most gracious start of a blog entry, but that’s how we’ve felt for the past few days. Our dinghy motor started acting up during the regatta (seemingly slipping out of gear), to the point it would only go in idle speed if at all. Wouldn’t you know, it happened as we were going into town from our anchorage at Red Shanks. Have we mentioned this is a 1.5 mile course that, when not on plane, takes 30 wet, frustrating minutes – especially when you’re trying like crazy to make it to the propane truck in time? We did make it to the propane truck before it left, and were able to hook up with Genesis, Storyville, Pa’La O’La, and Kaleo to watch some of the races. Unfortunately, when Rene went back to try to work on the engine between races, he discovered that our carburetor had taken on water (again). Stacy stayed with the others while Rene slow-boated it back to Red Shanks. Stacy got to go out in Genesis’s dinghy to follow the race boats while Rene sweated in the sun over a 9.9HP engine. Who do YOU think had more fun?

Anyway, that was then, this is now. The regatta is over, Stacy’s fabulous 40^th b-day is over, and we’re ready to begin our journey south to the DR. Right? Uhhh, not quite. When we finally got into town Monday morning to have someone look at the outboard, the mechanic determined that our propeller needed to be replaced. The bearing was shot thanks to a few Red Shanks groundings, and we needed a new prop. The mechanic even tried to come up with a temporary fix, which worked for all of the five minutes that it took us to get out of the relative protection of Lake Victoria and into the soaking waves of Elizabeth Harbour. Yippee! We hobbled back to the mechanic, who wasn’t able to get the “band-aid” to stay put. We were able to flag down Deana and Troy at the dinghy dock to give Stacy a ride back, and Rene eventually took a water taxi ride to Pipe.

After several calls on the VHF net, we got lots of helpful ideas from other cruisers in the harbor. Unfortunately, no one had a spare, and by all reports we couldn’t get a new prop delivered for a week or more. We were really hoping to leave Georgetown for Conception Island by Wednesday or Thursday (weather permitting), and didn’t want to hold our buddy boats back. As luck would have it, the weather gurus eventually pegged Saturday as a prime travel day, so we figured we had a few days to come up with a solution. On Tuesday, Rene was able to work with an air service who’d been recommended by other cruisers, and we were told us they’d be able to get us a new prop by Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, Troy spent hours working on our old prop, managing to get it functional enough for us to get around with a bit of babying. Miracle of miracles, our prop arrived at the airport Wednesday afternoon, and Rene picked it up at the customs office before joining us for dinner aboard Storyville. Hopefully we were back in business!

Rene went out to install the new prop Thursday morning, only to have our spirits dashed; the damn thing wouldn’t fit! We hadn’t been able to find a part number on the prop or in any of our documentation, so the agent found a replacement based on our outboard’s model and serial numbers. You’d think that would work, right? Sadly, not so much. It turns out the prop that we received had been returned, re-packaged, or whatever, because it didn’t match the box it was in and no one checked it in the rush to get it to the plane. Gary on Pa’La O’La realized he had the same outboard that we did, so he and Rene compared props and found an official Mercury part number. Rene sent the info to his air service agent, who went in search of yet another replacement. The hitch? Their next flight to Georgetown wouldn’t go until the FOLLOWING Wednesday. Our friends graciously decided to stick with us to the bitter end, agreeing that they wouldn’t leave Georgetown until we ALL could leave G’town. This seriously sucks for everyone, but we keep reminding us that life could be worse. After all, we’re still “stuck” in paradise…

We spent our extra week in GT doing last minute provisioning, waiting on the diesel truck to arrive (and then waiting for the broken gas pump to be repaired), borrowing our buddy boats’ dinghies for quick rides into town, bumming rides as needed, and getting together for the odd meal and happy hour at the Red Shanks Yacht and Racquet Club (i.e., the beach). It certainly wasn’t a bad way to spend a week, but we were all anxious to be on our way to our next destination. Wednesday finally arrived, and Rene hitchhiked up to the airport to save the $30 each way cab fare (not to worry – hitching is one of the basic modes of transportation in the Bahamas). As luck would have it, the 3:30pm flight was delayed to 5pm, which then became 7pm, which finally meant 7:15. Thank goodness the customs official promised to stay until the flight arrived, and Rene was finally able to get the prop in hand around 8pm. He even managed to put the new prop on at the dinghy dock in town, and had his first good ride in our dinghy in nearly two weeks. We were back in business!

In the midst of our propeller nightmare, we also had to bid a fond (and very teary) farewell to LA and Susan on Genesis. They’ve left Georgetown to meet up with some friends near Staniel Cay, and will travel back to Florida with them before heading down to Mexico. As much as we hate that they’re not traveling with us anymore, we know we’ll stay in touch through the wonders of Facebook, e-mail, and Blogger. How appropriate to be reading one of Troy’s favorite books, Illusions, by Richard Bach (Mr. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, himself), which says:

“Don’t be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”

We wish Genesis safe travels and look forward to seeing them again in some future anchorage. We love you guys!

In the meantime, we’re finally saying goodbye to the Exumas in the morning. We’ll be leaving Georgetown shortly after sunrise to get to Conception Island. It’s the first step in the next phase of our journey that’ll take us to the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Caribbean. Off we go!

Lordy, Lordy – Look Who’s 40!!

2011-05-04T13:48:00.007-04:00

Sunday, May 1^st, 2011

Well, everyone – this blog is a little different from our usual entries. Today is my (Stacy’s) 40^th birthday, so please indulge me for a bit! We all know that benchmark birthdays bring different emotions to different people. It’s a chance to reflect on our lives so far, and to wonder what our future will bring. What have I done with my life? Am I happy with where I am now? What might be next? A lot of people have asked how I felt about turning 40, and I can honestly say, not only do I have no problem with turning 40, I’ve even been excited about it. I’ve been so incredibly lucky to get to spend every day of the past two years with my hubby and best friend, Rene, in some mind-blowingly beautiful places…often surrounded by great friends. How can I not get excited about that?

My morning started off with a fantastic surprise from Rene: he got me a card and a gift! Now before you (or he) thinks I’m slamming him, think about our situation: we literally spend nearly every waking moment together and have done so for two years. Our running count of hours apart since March 2009 is somewhere between ten and twelve hours now, but that’s it. We’re never out of each other’s presence long enough to buy a card or present without the other knowing about it, so surprises are a HUGE accomplishment on this boat. Thanks to a problem we’re currently having with our dinghy’s outboard engine ("dinghy" equals "car" to the rest of you), Rene spent a good part of Saturday in town and managed to do a little surprise shopping. I adore this man!

Our next stop of the day was breakfast with LA and Susan aboard Genesis. As many of you know, we’ve been traveling with them for the past five months, and have seen them practically every day for that time. We’ve laughed, cried, told stories, had debates, explored new places, eaten fantastic meals, and drunk plenty of wine together, and they’ve become more important to us than we can even say. (Sadly, we’re getting ready to go our separate ways in a few days; don’t even get me started blubbering about THAT.) They invited us over for one of Susan’s yummy breakfasts of eggs, sausage, and biscuits, complimented – of course – by mimosas. Talk about a warm and fuzzy start to the day! (Of course, we forgot to bring a camera...) We really appreciated getting to spend some time together before they head for Florida, and will keep trying to convince them to join us on our southward venture. Denial is a beautiful thing, right?

After a much-needed nap (champagne seriously kicks my butt!), we got ready for the big party. Deana and Troy from Storyville, LA and Susan from Genesis, and Barbara and Gary from Pa’La O’La arranged a beach BBQ and bonfire in a gorgeous cove. The cove is apparently the home of a nudist camp during peak season – we didn’t go quite that far, but we sure enjoyed the thatched-roof palapa and bar they left behind! The ladies coordinated all the food (Barbara even made a chocolate birthday cake in her solar oven), Gary manned the grill, and Troy played guitar. We took a swim after dinner and got a fire going on the beach as the sun set. As if the great friends, food, and setting weren’t enough, there were even presents: LA and Susan gave me a terrific herbs & spices cookbook that should make shopping in the Caribbean a real adventure; Deana showed off her (very talented) artistic streak with a “Deana Jones Original” painted sea bean; and Barbara made a bookmark from a heart-shaped piece of coral found on one of her and Gary's many beach hunts. It really was the perfect day, and I have to thank each and every one of our great friends for giving me the best birthday ever. Cheers!!

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasStacySBig40?feat=directlink

Party Time: Family Island Regatta-Style, Georgetown, Great Exuma, Bahamas

2011-05-04T12:44:00.010-04:00

Friday, April 22 – Saturday, April 30, 2011

Welcome to the 58^th Annual Family Island Regatta! The regatta is held each year in Georgetown, and the sloops involved are all designed, built, owned, and sailed by locals from all over the Bahamas. This is THE event in the Bahamas (think of it as their Super Bowl, World Cup, and World Series all rolled into one), and adults and kids alike are given time off from work/school to attend.

We had originally planned on missing the regatta (silly us) to get a head start towards Conception, San Salvador, and Rum Cay on our way to the Turks and Caicos. Big surprise, our plans changed. As often happens with us, we began talking to others about the event, and soon had it drilled into our brains that this was an event we could NOT miss. Mother Nature seemed to agree with everyone else, because the weather soon turned less than ideal for the 40+ mile crossing to Conception. In the end, we decided to hang out with Storyville, Genesis, and Pa’La O’La in our favorite Georgetown anchorage, Red Shanks; Red Shanks was close enough to town to party when we wanted to, yet far enough away to get out of the craziness if need be.

The first race was held on Wednesday, offering us a chance to see the various classes – from the 28’ A class to the 18’ C class – in action. The most notable thing about the boats is their length to sail-plan ratio; these hand-made sloops average 20-30 feet in length, but their masts are nearly as high as ours (60’), and their boom is even longer; overall, the amount of canvas (sail) they fly is more than most cruising boats, and they are frighteningly unstable in heavy-wind conditions. Having no engine, participating boats must be towed out to the starting mark and then drop anchor. When the starting gun goes off, a few crew members begin hand-raising the anchor while others raise the sails. If a gust of wind knocks the boat sideways, everyone crawls out onto a plank hanging from the side of the boat (think “human counter-balance”); not doing it quickly enough could put you and the boat underwater. Talk about a show! The boats are beautiful with their sails flying, and the crowd really gets into it as islanders cheer for their favorites. Long Island and Black Point seem to have some of the most successful boats, and their followers are constantly egging each other on. In between races, you can grab BBQ ribs, jerk chicken, or a cold beer at one of 30 tin-roofed, plywood stands that get put up the week before the regatta.

The only downer to the regatta was the weather. As Mother Nature decided we needed to stay for the race, she also decided it was time to help the locals fill up their cisterns. Prior to the regatta, we could count on one hand the number of rainy days we’ve had since arriving in January; thanks to a tropical wave that came from the Turks & Caicos, downpours coursed through the Georgetown area for three of four days during the regatta. As much as the Bahamas needed the rain, this really wasn’t the time for it! Our first afternoon in town was spent running from observation spot to rain shelter and back again. We managed to go out in our dinghy and follow the boats during the last race, but headed home early to avoid getting soaked by yet another black cloud. We just made it to Pipe’s cockpit as the heavy drops hit…perfect timing since we hadn’t fully closed our hatches.

The rain kept us on the boat Thursday, but we made it back into town for more regatta excitement on Friday. We all left Red Shanks for the Monument anchorage on Saturday, in order to be closer to the beach where we’ll have Stacy’s birthday bash on Sunday. That, and we’ve recently been having problems with our dinghy engine…but that’s a story for another time. Til then…

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasXII?feat=directlink

Meet the Parents: Georgetown and Long Island, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-05-02T11:18:00.009-04:00

Monday, April 11 – Thursday, April 21, 2011

The parents are here! Stacy’s parents, Terri and Ken, arrived in Georgetown on the 13^th. Their flight arrived an hour before Susan’s (Genesis), so we shared a taxi with a very excited LA (“the admiral’s comin’ home!”) to meet everyone at the airport. We’d managed to load them down with a ton of requested gear – replacement walkie-talkies for the ones that fell overboard, Caribbean charts, foodie bits, a depth sounder, boat repair items, shoes, shorts, five months of mail, a waterproof backpack, and even an external hard drive – and were amazed when they met us outside of customs with only a suitcase, our backpack, and a couple of small shoulder bags. These guys know how to pack! We retreated to the airport lounge for a cold Kalik while we waited for Susan’s flight, and were soon back in the welcome air conditioning of Vensel’s taxi #23.

Upon our return to Georgetown, we had anchored behind Genesis in Red Shanks to share some happy hours and dinners with LA. We decided, however, that it would be much easier to get Mom and Ken aboard Pipe via a water taxi rather than four of us plus luggage in a slow, wet dinghy ride. We moved the boat to Sand Dollar Beach Tuesday afternoon, and moved it right back to Red Shanks 24 hours later with Mom and Ken on deck. After all, we had Mexican night planned with Genesis that evening! Susan and LA brought the blender, Stacy made the chicken enchiladas, and LA mixed some mean margaritas. We had a fantastic time and thought it was a great way to welcome Mom and Ken to the cruising life.

Thursday morning we took advantage of a calm weather window and motored back down to Salt Pond, Long Island. Storyville must’ve seen us coming around the point, because we soon heard Troy’s voice calling us on the VHF. We’re baaa-aack!! Everyone gathered in our cockpit for happy hour, introductions were made for Storyville and the parents, and we ended the evening with Mom’s yummy chicken corn chowder. We all agreed to get another car to tour the island for two days, and Rene arranged a mini-van with the local rental place.

The next morning, the boys walked the three blocks to Fox’s car rental while we ladies hung back at the dinghy dock with the bags. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then thirty, and we knew something was up. We finally saw a van coming down the road, and Rene told us that there’d been some mis-communication and our van had been rented out. Oops! Fortunately, Mr. Fox knew someone else who was willing to rent us a van, and we were back in business. First stop, meat patties!

After a detour at the old Spanish church, we stopped back in Deadman’s cay for eight beef patties. The poor girl behind the counter got pretty wide-eyed before going into a storage room to get the microwave oven (she usually uses a small toaster oven to SLOWLY warm the patties). Tummies again filled with junk food, we then headed south to Hamilton's Cave. Hamilton's Cave is one of the largest caves in the Bahamas, and was once used by the Lucayan Indians. The cave is actually on private property, but for $10 a head, the owner, Leonard Cartwright, will give you a fantastic tour. Leonard's family first purchased the 90 acres on which the cave sits in 1892 for 27 pounds. The cave is filled with incredible stalactites and stalagmites, as well as five different species of fruit bats. There were gorgeous spots where light filtered in through holes in the ceiling, giving the appearance of electric lighting. The tour was well worth the fee, and Leonard was a gracious and informative host. We'd highly recommend his tour to anyone visiting Long Island!

Our next stop on our road trip was 663-foot-deep Dean’s Blue Hole. We’d heard that this was a rest day for the participants of the free-diving competition, and figured we’d have a better opportunity to swim in the hole. We were surprised to find a small group on the diving platform, and got to meet one of the judges and two of the safety divers (both of whom were capable of diving to 100 meters or more). The group told us that the competition started again the next morning around 10am, and that there would be one world-record and multiple national-record attempts made. We were sold!

We continued south to Clarence Town, where Susan made her way to the top of the Catholic church tower and we smartened up enough to find lunch at Rowdy Boys restaurant near the marina. After a huge lunch of fresh wahoo sandwiches, cheeseburgers, and conch fritters, we lounged pool-side before getting back in the van. Susan had heard that Ford’s Beach was another must-see, and a Rowdy Boy said we should go to the southernmost point on the island. “Just keep going. You can’t miss it.” Imagine our surprise when the road abruptly dead-ended a mile and a half short. Hmmm… A quick glance at the chart showed that, yes, the road was really supposed to do that. There was no drive-able way to get to the point, and we were all feeling too sleepy from lunch for a major hike across jagged limestone. Lazy bones, we know. :-)

After a quiet night aboard our respective boats, we were back in the van bright and early…or not…to go see the free-diving championships at Dean’s Blue Hole. If you’re not familiar with the sport, free-divers take a single breath, descend to a target level, and must then make it back to the surface unassisted. That means no scuba tanks, no supplemental air, and no one can assist you until you spend 30 seconds proving that A) you have the official tab showing that you reached your target depth; B) that you can give hand and voice “okay” signals to show that your brain is working again, and C) that you’re not going to black out. (More on “C” later…)

We made a quick stop at the patty place (where we were informed we’d cleaned off all but the last two beef patties the day before), and arrived in time to watch a Russian free-diver make a new (women’s) world record. Natalia Molchanova had attempted the 100-meter dive twice before, but had blacked out as she surfaced both times. Apparently this isn’t all that uncommon; as one diver puts it, “when the diver is resurfacing between 10 and 5 meters, the oxygen in the blood drops quickly. It is like standing up too fast.” As a precaution, safety divers meet the competitors at 30 meters and return with them to the surface, surrounding them in case anything goes wrong. Still, if you have to be supported or even touched in the first 30 seconds after the dive, you’re disqualified. We all listened as the officiator counted off the depths as the Russian descended….50 meters…60 meters…70 meters…and we screamed for joy with the rest of the divers when the call came that Natalia had reached her target. The safety divers soon went under to meet her, and everyone held their breath as she surfaced. Screams of “breathe, breathe” and “mask, mask” were followed by, “Okay? Okay?”, as she removed her goggles and gave an okay sign. Thirty seconds later, a very happy judge held up the white card (showing a completed dive) to an even happier diver. It was official: Natalia Molchanova successfully made a new world record of 100 meters for the "deepest female" title.

The rest of the day offered a couple of let-downs, when one diver had to turn back early during a 119-meter attempt and another cut short a 122-meter attempt. Both divers were trying to break a New Zealand national record, and both made it below 100 meters before returning. Incredibly, the world record is 124 meters – again, using only a single breath of air with NO supplemental oxygen. Crazy!

We dropped Storyville and Genesis back in Salt Pond and continued up to the Columbus monument. Mom and Ken oohed and awed at the views just like we had, even though the ride seemed (at least to this writer) even worse than before. (Maybe because I knew what to expect?!) We followed that up with a visit to Adderley’s Plantation Ruins, where you can still see the remains of various buildings that were destroyed by a 1927 hurricane. We made it back to Pipe in time for sundowners with Storyville, an easy dinner, and a few games of Yahtzee. After two full days of touring, we were definitely ready for an early bedtime.

We spent our last couple of days in Long Island enjoying some quiet time on the boat and an internet/pool day at Long Island Breeze (sadly, no lunch – they were unexpectedly closed on Sunday). Deana and Troy loaded us their new Explorer charts – complete with NEW Turks & Caicos coverage – for some heavy-duty planning sessions, and we decided we didn’t really need two full weeks for the T&C. That’s awesome news, since it means we can stay in Georgetown for at least part of the Family Island Regatta!

We really enjoyed our final night in Long Island, thanks to Triphena and her Bahamian buffet at Club Thompson Bay. Triphena is a major personality in Salt Pond, and we’ve heard other cruisers talk about her wonderful dinners ever since we arrived. We decided to delay our return to Georgtown by a day so we could attend the Monday night buffet. LA and Susan joined us, and we dinghied to the north end of Thompson Bay for the short walk to the restaurant. There were about 30 people in attendance, and our mouths started to water as Triphena brought out plates full of BBQ ribs, fried chicken and fish, crab coleslaw, Bahamian mac n cheese, curry chicken and rice, peas and rice. We met Gigi’s Island and Pretty Penny, and got some fantastic information from them about the upcoming regatta. We also got a little surprise at the end of the night when we reached the dinghy beach; Pipe’s dinghy was still relatively close to shore, but thanks to the incoming tide, Genesis’s dinghy was 150 feet off the beach in 4-6 feet of water. LA began wading out towards it and soaked the bottom of his shorts before he’d gone 10 feet. Rene, Mom, and Ken managed to push the other dinghy in closer to shore, and we all waded out in thigh-high water.

We motor-sailed back to GT on Tuesday and found a spot to drop the hook near Monument Beach. The following seas made for some rolling towards the end of the trip, but Mom and Ken (not to mention Tux) were absolute troupers. We spent Wednesday ashore wandering around town, touring the local souvenir shop and straw market, and enjoyed lunch at Two Turtles. We couldn't believe Mom and Ken's trip was coming to an end, but knew they'd had a great time while they were here.

Thursday brought some teary goodbyes as Mom and Ken hopped aboard the water taxi for their ride back to town and the airport. We hated to see them leave, but we hope to make it back to the US sometime this summer or fall for a family visit. Fingers crossed! For now, we'll head back to Red Shanks to meet up with Genesis and Storyville, and to enjoy the 58th Annual Family Island Regatta. It should be quite the party!

Please enjoy more pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasXI?feat=directlink

Salt Pond, Long Island, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-05-02T11:13:00.007-04:00

Saturday, April 2 – Sunday, April 10, 2011

How does that old song go? “Sailing, sailing…over the bounding main…” Okay, with 12 knots on the nose, maybe “motoring, motoring” is more appropriate. Who cares? It’s turned into a beautiful day after last night’s squalls, and the sea is a beautiful shade of deep blue as we make our way to Long Island. Life is just better on the water!

We left Georgetown at 7:30 this morning for the 35 mile trip to Thomas Bay near Salt Pond. Today was our last chance to get out before the weather changed on us; 20 knots, gusting to 30, are expected tomorrow, and it won’t die down for another 2-3 days after that. Long Island should give us as much protection as Georgetown would, and it gives us a chance to check out the place before we return with Stacy’s parents.

You know it’s a calm ride when Tux manages to take a cat nap in the cockpit – without getting seasick. We reach Salt Pond shortly after 3pm, only to see “Texas Navy” boats, Morning Glory and Kaleo, anchored near shore. (Queue the “It’s a Small World” singers now…you really can’t make this stuff up!) We all agree to meet up after taking showers and putting the dinghies back in the water. MG and Kaleo know of a place in town that offers cold bevvies and free wi-fi. What a terrific way to begin our stay in Long Island!

The next couple of days are spent visiting with the Texas Navy, catching up on boat projects, exploring the grocery offerings in Salt Pond, and enjoying the almost-free wi-fi (so it’s the price of a beer) at Long Island Breeze Resort. There’s a morning cruiser net run by Mike, owner/manager of Long Island Breeze, but that’s about the only thing Long Island has in common with Georgetown. The VHF is blessedly free of chatter, and the ratio of boats to anchoring space is the best we’ve seen since Eleuthera. We love this place!

Tuesday we rent a car with Storyville to check out the rest of the island. We’ve been told there are plantation ruins, the world’s deepest blue hole, one of the world’s top ten beaches, and a Christopher Columbus monument at the northern tip of the island, where the Santa Maria allegedly ran aground. Keeping in mind that Long Island is 80 miles long with some less-than-stellar roadways, we know we have a long day ahead of us. We begin to head south, but decide to make a quick detour to check out the Atlantic side of the island. Long Island is less than two miles wide at Salt Pond, so we figure it’ll be an easy trek to a beautiful ocean beach. What were we thinking?? We turn left before Harding’s grocery store, and soon run out of pavement. We continue on up a steep hill, and…STOP! The ruts have become soft sand, and we manage to hit the brakes before we get stuck. On the bright side, it’s a beautiful beach and is definitely worth a stop.

After a quick beach walk, we manage to drive about three miles before we scream for Rene to stop the car again. We’ve just passed the remains of St. Mary’s, a 17^th century Spanish-built church, and the ruins offer some dramatic photo ops. Pictures complete, we’re soon on the road again headed for Deadman’s Cay. Not to confuse things, but Deadman’s Cay isn’t actually a cay…it’s a settlement. Huh? So Long Island isn’t a cay, but it has a town that’s called a “cay”. Sorry – we don’t grasp the logic, either. (If anyone knows what dictates a cay vs. an island – length, maybe? – PLEASE let us know!) Anyhow, we do manage to find a convenience store in Deadman’s Cay that sells beef patties. Woo hoo! Think ground beef with curry and other seasonings wrapped in a soft pastry shell. It’s yummy Bahamian junk food, and somehow makes a great late-breakfast treat. Four happy tummies later, we drive through the settlements of Buckleys, Cartwrights, Mangrove Bush, and Hamilton. Just before we reach the capital of Clarence Town, we see the sign for Dean’s Blue Hole. Dean’s Blue Hole is 663 feet deep and is reported to be the deepest blue hole in the world. It’s on the Atlantic side, but is completely protected from waves thanks to being located within a small cove. A passing squall keeps us in the car when we arrive, and more rain clouds convince us to come back later in the afternoon – hopefully with better weather for pictures and swimming. For now, we get back on the road to Clarence Town and one of its best known features: the Catholic church built by Father Jerome.

Father Jerome is well-known throughout the Bahamas as a restorer and builder of Anglican and Catholic churches. Born John Cecil Hawes, Father Jerome was first an architect and later an Anglican priest. He was sent to the Bahamas in 1908 to rebuild hurricane-ravaged churches, and later settled on Long Island. Our cruising guides tell us that the view from the tower of Clarence Town’s Catholic church is a must-see, so that’s where we’re headed. We climb up the steep, narrow staircase and manage to pry ourselves through a tight opening at the top of the tower. Wow! The view really is spectacular. We can see the Anglican church on a nearby hillside, abandoned salt ponds to the south, and quite a few sailboats anchored in the harbour.

Back in the car, we continue on south of Clarence Town to Dunmore in search of the Dunmore Castle ruins. Thanks to a total lack of street signs, we have no idea where we should turn to see the ruins. We finally turn east near Dunmore proper, only to find a decaying brick structure that’s now being used as an open-air garage for a broken-down pick-up truck and a tie-up for a few goats. We don’t think much of it until a local woman comes up to the car asking if she can help. When we tell her we’re looking for the castle ruins, she points back to the brick garage and says it’s there, “where the goats are tied”. Seriously?? This is it? Okay…maybe it’s time to give up the hunt for the ruins and head back to the blue hole. Fortunately the weather has really improved, and we’re able to see the spectacular color changes thanks to a break in the clouds. Rene even manages to climb a rope ladder to jump off a 45’ cliff into the blue hole. Geronimo!! This hole is also used for the world championship free-diving competition in a couple of weeks, so we’ll definitely bring Stacy’s parents back here.

Believe it or not, we’ve only covered a half-day in the car. We still have the entire north side of the island ahead of us, and we’re getting nibbly. Given that it’s already after 2pm, we try to wait a little longer to have a late-lunch-slash-early-dinner. We head for Deal’s Beach, supposedly one of the world’s top-ten beaches. (Really??) Further north is a rutted goat road that leads to the Columbus monument at Cape Santa Maria. As hellish as the road is (think 2-3mph over gravel and larger rocks), the views definitely make it worthwhile. The one thing we haven’t found yet? An open place to eat. We’ve passed a few restaurants that have open signs, but no one is home. Even the take-out spot we find has closed for the day. We try one restaurant again at 5:30, hoping maybe it closes until the dinner rush. Nope, it’s still closed. We finally drive back to Salt Pond and end up at Sou’ Side, a little bar/grill just across the street from our car rental place.

We get a surprise visitor the next day: Shane, from Guiding Light, is anchored in Clarence Town and has rented a car to tour the island. He knew that we and Storyville were in Salt Pond and was able to hail Deana and Troy on the VHF. They’ve dinghied over to our boat, and we have a chance to catch up on Shane’s travels to the Jumentos and Crooked Island. We spend the rest of the afternoon on deserted Flat Cay, where we enjoy a beach day with a good book under an umbrella. This is the life! We’ll be raising the anchor for Georgetown in a day or two, where we’ll meet up with Stacy’s parents on the 13^th. There’s still plenty to see on Long Island, and we’re excited to share it with them. Til next time…

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasX?feat=directlink

"Chicken Harbour", Exumas, Bahamas

2011-04-06T13:53:00.009-04:00

Thursday, March 10 – Friday, April 1, 2011

Author’s note: I can’t start a blog on March 10^th without wishing my darling hubby a very happy birthday!

Wow…has it really been three weeks since we’ve blogged? Time flies when you’re being lazy! We’ve spent the past three weeks in Georgetown, aka “Chicken Harbour”, aka “Velcro Bay”…so named for the number of boaters who arrive, intending only to pass through on their way to more exotic Caribbean destinations, yet find themselves coming up with every excuse in the book not to go any farther. Most cruisers have a love-hate relationship with Georgetown. If you’re really into group events, this is definitely your kind of town. Every morning, the cruiser “net” on VHF72 announces a litany of events…bridge clubs, fun volleyball, regulation volleyball, cooking classes, fishing seminars, beach walks, beach church, and our personal favorite, Saturday night ARG (“alcohol research group”, or “Aarggh”) meetings, where the goal is to drink like a pirate. For those of us who aren’t big fans of the “senior summer camp” mentality, the constant radio chatter gets a bit annoying. Not that we’re complaining in paradise, and GT does have a terrific grocery store! J

We made the trip from Galiott Cut to Georgetown on Rene’s birthday, and were blown away by the number of masts in the harbor. We’ve never seen so many boats in one place! Granted, we arrived at the tail end of the big cruiser’s regatta, but this place is pretty busy all season. We were able to find Storyville, Anchor Management, and Guiding Light clustered together near the Chat ‘N Chill on Volleyball Beach. We later learned that the rest of the Texas Navy had left that morning to anchor in a more secluded and protected area known as Red Shanks. Not to worry – Sea Yawl Later played ferry boat to bring the crew back to Volleyball Beach on Friday for the awards ceremony (and Deana’s birthday). Good thing, too…Sea Yawl Later won first place in the multi-hull category, with Guiding Light a close second. Deana also won first place in the underway bake-off contest with her “Golden Crème Brulee Cheesecake” recipe. Congrats to all!

The next two weeks were filled with happy hours, dinners, movie nights, and Mexican Train (dominoes) parties. We all moved our boats over to Red Shanks to spend some time with the rest of the group, and fell in love with the anchorage. As crazy as Georgetown can be, Red Shanks makes you feel like you’re still in a remote part of the Exumas (if you turn off the VHF radio, that is). Best of all, it’s still a short dinghy ride into town. The only tricky part, at least for us, was crossing a very shallow sand bar to anchor near our friends. Granted, we could’ve anchored closer to the entrance in plenty of water, but what fun would that have been??? We managed to cross the bar at high tide, and only hit bottom three, maybe four times. Stacy held her breath the whole time, but Rene did a fabulous job of getting us safely across. We found a spot in the protected cove along with Storyville, Kaleo, Morning Glory, and Guiding Light, and were happy to have the protection (and the great company!) when the winds started to blow 20-25kts later in the week.

We were thrilled to finally re-connect with LA and Susan on Genesis, who’d spent the past week at the Emerald Bay Marina after their boat guest’s departure. We’ve heard stories about what a gorgeous facility Emerald Bay is (it’s next door to the Sandals and Grand Isle resorts and is appropriately froo-froo for the neighborhood). Best of all, the marina is offering a dockage special of $1/foot. Being able to stay at such a luxurious spot for under $50/night is quite a coup for cruisers, and we’ve talked to many boaters who’ve taken advantage of it. LA and Susan anchored near Sand Dollar Beach and dinghied over to Red Shanks for happy hour aboard Pipe. The next day we moved the boat over to Sand Dollar to anchor near Genesis, and enjoyed a “welcome back” dinner together. Storyville joined us a day later, and Susan made her fantastic pork loin, citrus rice, and mango chutney for everyone. We’re so spoiled! We debated leaving Georgetown to explore Long Island, but weather guru Chris Parker changed our minds with stories of cold fronts coming later in the week. Instead, all three boats moved back to Red Shanks for a few days, where the front was – thankfully – a non-event. The other thing that kept us from leaving GT? No propane! For those of you who remember our “no diesel on Green Turtle Cay” debacle in the Abacos last year, this was along the same vein. There’s a propane truck that services Georgetown every Wednesday, and wouldn’t you know, we arrived on Thursday. No problem…we figured we still had about three weeks’ worth of propane, so we’d just get it the following week. One small problem: the following Wednesday, the cruiser net announced that the propane truck was broken, so there wouldn’t be a delivery. Could we take it to Forbes Enterprises for a fill? It would cost twice as much, but in times of desperation and all that… Nope, Forbes uses the same (broken) propane source. By the end of our third week, we still had no propane and knew we were on fumes. None of the nearby islands had propane themselves – they all sent their bottles to either Georgetown or Nassau on the mail boat once per week – so leaving GT wasn’t really an option. We actually ran out of propane in the middle of cooking Wednesday night’s dinner, almost three weeks to the day after arriving in Georgetown. Someone was apparently looking out for us, because the propane truck was finally fixed and made a special trip to fill up everyone’s tanks on Thursday morning. Talk about close calls!

It’s difficult to cover three weeks, especially when Georgetown lulls one into the complacency of more mundane tasks like grocery shopping, internet, and laundry. When you don’t have access to such simple pleasures in many parts of the Exumas, you tend to go a little nuts in Georgetown. Some of our “off the beaten path” highlights included: hiking up to the monument with Guiding Light; watching the cruiser regatta variety show (in a painful sort of way); having nine people aboard Pipe for homemade cannelloni; listening to Troy “jam” with other cruisers at the Sand Bar; a group dinner at Cheater’s to welcome Christy and Steve back from their stateside visits; movie night aboard GL; and a road trip with Genesis and Storyville up to Emerald Bay Marina and all the way back down to the south tip of the island.

Sadly, Georgetown has also meant some – hopefully temporary – goodbyes. Shane and his boat guest, Michael, left to explore the Jumentos, while Morning Glory, Kaleo, and Sea Yawl Later headed for Long Island and the Turks and Caicos. We all plan to return to Georgetown for the Family Island Regatta at the end of April, so hopefully we’ll get to see the Texas Navy for one more party before the real farewells begin. Steve, on the other hand, left a few days ago to make his way to Puerto Rico where he’ll leave the boat for hurricane season. It was hard for us to see him go, and even more so for Deana and Troy who’ve been his constant companions – friends, marina neighbors, and buddy boaters – for over two years now. We’ve made plans to meet up again in the BVIs for New Year’s…we WILL make that happen!

On a lighter note, we’re finally pulling the Velcro off the boat and are getting out of Georgetown for a few days! Storyville is joining us for a trip to Salt Pond on Long Island, which is about 30 miles south-east of Georgetown. Susan has headed home for two weeks to visit friends and celebrate her mother’s 80^th birthday, and we haven’t been able to convince LA to skip the boat projects and join us as a single-hander. (LA, we expect those toe rails to sparkle when we get back!) Susan returns the same day that Stacy’s parents arrive, so we’ll all be ready to party by then. Till next time…cheers!

Enjoy additional pictures here

Welcoming More Boat Guests: Staniel, O’Brien’s, Cambridge, and Warderick Wells Cays, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-03-15T12:38:00.011-04:00

Saturday, February 26 – Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Please help us welcome our friends from Annapolis, Skip and Betsy! We know how lucky we are to spend every day in paradise, but paradise is even better when you get to share it with great friends. Skip & Betsy arrived in Staniel Cay on Saturday. We had visions of meeting them at the plane as they arrived, snapping pictures as they got off the little nine-seater Flamingo Air flight. Since this is the Bahamas (“island time, mon”), we felt pretty safe showing up for the 2:45 arrival right at 2:45. As we learned during Geoie’s visit, 2:45 really means sometime between then and 4pm. Imagine our surprise when they were waiting for us at the boat landing! The plane managed to get in five minutes early – that’s got to be a first for Staniel Cay. Since Betsy’s bag had been put on a second plane arriving 45 minutes later, we figured we could take them to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to change clothes, watch the neighborhood nurse sharks, and have a welcome drink. Rene went back to the airport to get the bag, only to watch the plane take off…with Betsy’s bag still on it! The airline hadn’t said we had to physically be there when the plane landed to receive the bag, so it was on its way back to Nassau. Oops! Fortunately we had planned to spend the night at Big Major’s anchorage, giving us a chance to show Skip and Betsy the swimming pigs, have happy hour with Genesis, and pick up Betsy’s bag the next morning.

Sunday we enjoyed a lazy motor-sail up to O’Brien’s Cay, where we anchored near the submerged plane and the Sea Aquarium. LA and Susan joined us for Mexican night – chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, and margaritas – which also kicked off the week-long celebration of Skip's birthday. We spent the following morning snorkeling the plane and aquarium. The sergeant majors swarmed us as soon as we got into the water, and the corals and sea life were absolutely beautiful. Afterwards Rene took the dinghy to a nearby sandbar while we swam behind him. What a gorgeous spot! We got back to the boat in time for lunch and a short two-mile motor to the Cambridge Cay mooring field. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon on the boat, followed by dinner aboard Pipe. Tuesday morning brought a spectacular hike along the Bell Rock bluff, followed by snorkeling at the Rocky Dundas cave. The stalactites and colors were fantastic, but we could easily see how this could be a dangerous place to visit in the wrong weather; even at slack tide, the waves were pounding against the cave walls. The corals outside the cave were gorgeous and worth a snorkeling trip all on their own.

Tuesday afternoon we made an outside run to Warderick Wells. We had hoped to moor in the southern field at Hog Cay (which requires two good weather days for an Atlantic entry and exit), but the weather forecast warned against it. We were able to get a mooring in the north field, and were greeted by a resident eagle ray soon after our arrival. A rainstorm woke us up before sunrise, and the dark clouds signaled a boat day in our future. Wouldn’t you know, winds picked up to 25-30kts and stayed that way until Saturday. We managed to get off the boat long enough on Thursday to show Skip and Betsy the resident Banana Kwits and hike some of the trails criss-crossing Warderick Wells while Rene replaced the whaler pump in the macerator. (Poor guy…for those of you not familiar with a whaler pump, in our world of pink and blue jobs, it’s a VERY “blue” job.) The winds were strong enough that no one wanted to get soaked on a dinghy ride for further exploration, so we ended up having a couple of lazy days with good books on the boat.

We finally decided to brave the seas on Saturday for the 25-mile trip south to Black Point. We’d shown Skip and Betsy the more remote side of the Exumas, and wanted them to have a chance to see a Bahamian settlement. Black Point is filled with friendly people and good shore-side spots, and also allows for a short 10-mile jaunt back to Staniel Cay. We arrived in Black Point at 3pm and were lucky enough to get a reservation for the Bahamian BBQ night at Lorraine’s Café. Fresh battered grouper, fried chicken, barbequed chicken and ribs, crab salad, Bahamian mac and cheese, peas and rice, and coleslaw…what a feast! The place was filled with Canadians, one of whom entertained us with songs on his guitar. There’s nothing quite like hearing “This Land is Your Land” from “Bonne Vista to the Vancouver Islands, from the Arctic Circle to the Great Lake waters…” Can’ say we’ve ever heard that version before! Best of all? Lorraine still had plenty of fresh grouper for the next day’s lunch. We knew we’d be back!

Monday’s light winds allowed for an outside run to Staniel Cay, where we spent our final day with Skip and Betsy before their Tuesday departure. We picked up a mooring ball near Thunderball grotto and were able to get to the grotto in time for low slack tide. Thunderball was first introduced in a James Bond film of the same name; now it’s likely appreciated more by snorkelers than by film buffs. The light coming through the different cave entrances was spectacular, and we were surprised at how much fish life we found. We managed to swim through the back entrance to explore the corals, and made our way back around to the dinghy on the opposite side of the rock.

After a final happy hour at the SCYC, we enjoyed a last dinner of the Omaha steaks that Skip and Betsy brought with them. Tuesday morning Rene dinghied them to the airport, and they were on their way back to reality. Skip and Betsy are such great friends (not to mention incredibly easy boat guests), and we’re really going to miss them. We can’t wait until they get to begin their own cruising adventure, and hope to see them in another beautiful anchorage in the next year or two. In the meantime, we’re heading for Black Point and Galliot Cut, where we’ll make an outside jump to Georgetown. The Texas Navy has been down there for the past two weeks partying at the regatta, and Genesis should be arriving in the next week or so. Til next time…

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasVIII?feat=directlink

Hanging Out with the Texas Navy: Black Point & Little Farmer’s Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-02-21T11:50:00.009-05:00

Monday, February 14 – Monday, February 21, 2011

Welcome to another beautiful day in paradise! We’ve spent the past week with our friends from Kemah, who have joined up with 3-5 other boats (depending on the day). Given that at least six boats (we’re #7) are from the Kemah, TX, vicinity, the armada has begun calling itself the “Texas Navy”...as in one popular VHF hail: “Texas Navy, Texas Navy…please switch and answer channel 17 for an important happy hour announcement.” (Should we be concerned that a BASRA boat – the Bahamas version of the Coast Guard – was anchored near the group when we arrived??) Three of the boats are catamarans, and we’ve had the opportunity to spend time on two of them. Talk about luxury! When you can comfortably fit 15-20 people on a boat, there’s rarely a question about where happy hour will be held.

Our trip down from Eleuthera was absolutely gorgeous. As much as we hated to leave Genesis, we were excited to get back to the Exumas (and we know we’ll see Genesis again in Staniel Cay next week). Our original plan was to sail 45 miles to Bell Island, and make the 15-20 mile trip to Black Point the next day. Thanks to some good winds on the beam, we were able to average 7+ knots motor-sailing. Three hours into the trip, we realized that Bell Island was 30 miles away while Black Point was 35 miles away. Because of the curvature of the Exumas chain, we could add an hour to the trip and meet up with our friends a day early. Rest day on Tuesday! We arrived in Black Point around 4pm and dropped the hook near the “navy”. Within minutes we saw a band of familiar dinghies come zooming around the point; Steve, Matt, and Christie stopped by the boat and invited us to a get-together on one of the cats, Guiding Light. We joined the multitude of dinghies later that evening, and got to meet Guiding Light’s owner, Shane, as well as Linda and Rusty on Sea Yawl Later and Ted and Millie on Morning Glory. Adding Storyville, Anchor Management, and Kaleo to the mix, we had a terrific evening as usual!

Tuesday afternoon we decided to try our hand at lobster hunting. After a brief stop at a stalactite-filled cave that Shane knew about, we made our way south to a small cove dotted with coral heads. Hawaiian sling in hand, Rene jumped into the water to hunt for dinner. Shane managed to catch the first lobster, and Steve was soon bringing up a two-foot long grand-daddy. Deana was next, while Rene’s prey continued to elude him. Deana pointed out a cluster of rocks where she had seen something scurrying about, and both Shane and Rene began searching under the coral. Rene readied his spear, and…bingo! Only one problem…the poor little guy was tiny! Rene tried another spot up the coast while the others went back to warm up on their boats; sadly, no lobsters. We all agreed to share our spoils over dinner, and Stacy was nominated as chef. She cooked the lobsters a la Brendal (mojo marinade, sour orange, butter, and hot sauce), Deana brought Bahamian mac and cheese, and Shane brought banana bread for dessert. Steve opened up a precious bottle of Zaya rum for after-dinner sipping, and we all felt thoroughly spoiled after a night of good food and friends. Have we mentioned lately how much we love our life?

After spending Wednesday in town taking advantage of internet at Lorraine’s Café and lunch at DeShaMon’s, we planned to move down to Little Farmers Cay with the rest of the group. Rene raised the dinghy in preparation for our departure, and we waited for the first boat to pull anchor...and waited…and waited. Shame on us for not checking in with anyone; we would’ve quickly found out that we weren’t going anywhere for another day! A few boats had come up with the idea for a full-moon potluck party on the beach, and who were we to pass up the opportunity for a get-together? Better yet, Rusty on Sea Yawl Later had returned from Staniel Cay and offered to play ferry boat. There’s nothing quite like watching a monster catamaran raft up to your boat! Shane got the fenders ready, and Rusty brought SYL alongside Storyville like a pro. The rest of us used Storyville as a dinghy dock and hopped aboard SYL. Once everyone arrived, we tossed the lines and motored to the party at Regatta Point. A crowd of locals and other cruisers had already gathered, and potluck dishes lined the counter. After dinner, Rusty raised a sail and projected Captain Ron onto the canvas; “dockside cinema” was a first for many of us, and everyone loved it.

Friday morning we sailed – yes, motor off and everything! – 10 miles to Little Farmer’s Cay. Pipe and Storyville decided to forgo the difficult and shallow channel into the town anchorage and dropped the hook on the west side of the island; just as we were ready to dinghy over to the others, the heavens opened and a series of squalls passed through the area. The storms lasted until sunset, keeping us all on our boats. We didn’t get to say goodbye to our new friends on the catamarans, who all set sail for Georgetown the following morning. Hopefully we’ll get to see them in GT when we make it down there next month.

Saturday we went ashore to Little Farmer’s Cay and were instantly enchanted by the locals we met. We first saw a man standing in the middle of the harbor, seeming to swirl his arms through the water. We soon realized that he was harvesting conchs, and watched as he used a machete to remove the meat from the shells before cleaning the…uh…less edible parts. After offering up the gorgeous shells to the group, he told us that his wife had tomatoes and green peppers for sale in the nearby green house. Produce! A little boy came out as we approached the steps to take our “order”; we got two peppers and four tomatoes for $3, the best deal we’ve had since arriving in the Bahamas! Our next stop was the local grocery store, where Tasha greeted us as the door and offered fresh papaya and a pomegranate-like fruit from her garden. We gathered a few staples while Tasha wrote out her recipe for Bahamian peas & rice (“peas” being brown pigeon peas, not the familiar sweet green ones). Her secret was using half coconut milk, half water, when making the rice. It gave it a creamier texture than water alone and was delicious.

We followed up our shopping trip with a walk up the hill to Ocean Cabin, where Jim and Nancy from Solitaire were manning the bar. They’ve been coming to Little Farmer’s for years, and were able to share some of the history of the island and its residents. They also offered to lead us to a cave that Shane had told us about, filled with stalactites and stalagmites and a clear pool for swimming. What an incredible experience! We met at Oven Rock after lunch and hiked along the iron shore to the cave opening. Thank goodness someone had told us to bring flashlights, because the cave was pitch black even in the middle of the day. We had to watch our footing along the loose stones as we walked down to the pool, but it was well worth it. The pool was shallow at first, but the bottom dropped out as we rounded the boulders. It led around the back of the cave to a series of smaller under-water tunnels. None of us chanced going through them – we didn’t know whether we’d find breathable air on the other side!

After our refreshing swim in the cave, Jim and Nancy led us to a beach on the Atlantic side where we waded in the surf and looked for shells. We ended the night with a happy hour and star-gazing aboard Storyville, and again marveled at how lucky we are to be doing this. We’ll spend the next couple of days in Little Farmer’s before heading back north to Black Point and Staniel Cay. We’re looking forward to seeing LA and Susan on Genesis again, and can’t wait to welcome Skip and Betsy aboard Pipe on the 26^th. We know we’ll have a great time with them, and should have plenty of good stories and pictures for the next blog. Cheers!

Please enjoy more pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasVII?feat=directlink

Detour to Eleuthera, Bahamas

2011-02-13T12:18:00.010-05:00

Saturday, February 5 - Sunday, February 13, 2011

Welcome to the lovely island of Eleuthera! Eleuthera is the third largest island in the Bahamas, and is only 30 miles away from Nassau and the Exumas at its closest point. Most cruisers only see Eleuthera if they pass through while traveling from the Abacos to the Exumas; we decided to join Genesis for a few days away from the relative isolation of the Exumas…and, of course, for shopping!

We arrived in Rock Sound at the southern end of the island after an easy 45-mile motor-sail from Warderick Wells. You can anchor right off of the main dock, and can dinghy in for a short walk to groceries, a liquor store, restaurants, laundry, hardware, etc. Rock Sound is a relatively sleepy town, especially on Sundays when, as it turns out, everything is closed. Oops! We were directed to Sammy’s Place, pretty much the only place in town that was open for lunch on Sunday. They served a great cheeseburger, and their prices were better than anything we’d seen in the Exumas. Sammy’s also had fliers advertising a Super Bowl party a local club; it sounded great in theory, but an after-dark dinghy ride and a walk to the club proved to be more than we could manage. Instead, we opted for dinner for four aboard Pipe, and got the final score from a local three days later. Aren’t we a bunch of party animals?

Tuesday we rented a car so we could explore the rest of the island. (When you cruise at an average of 5-6mph, a 100-plus mile long island can be a bit daunting!) A brief stop at Eleuthera's "Glass Window" bridge presented us with a view of the shallow, turquoise waters of Exuma Sound to the west of the road, and the deep blue of the Atlantic to the east. Our two-hour drive to the island’s north ferry dock was followed by a 10-minute water taxi (400HP, thank you) to Dunmore Town on Harbour Island. We rented a golf cart to explore the picturesque island, with its colorful historic buildings and “pink sand” beaches. Lunch was from a take-away shack on the waterfront, and we found a magnificent beach lined with posh resorts on the Atlantic side. FYI…a few of the Atlantic beaches on Eleuthera really do have a light pink hue thanks to the coral and shells that make up the sand. It really was gorgeous, and we could see why Harbour Island is known as a world-class resort destination.

Wednesday we went shopping in Governor’s Harbour, known as the first capital of the Bahamas. While many locals feel that Rock Sound offers the best grocery store on the island, Governor’s Harbour is the place to be if you want freshly-baked breads, pastries, and Bahamian empanadas, or a great (and affordable) wine selection at the local Bristol’s Wine & Spirits. And have we mentioned how friendly the people are here? Susan was asking someone for directions to a local restaurant we’d read about, and it turned out he (Michael) owned a resort/restaurant five miles up the road. Cocodimama is a charming resort on Alabaster Bay, just north of Governor’s Harbour. The original owners, a Sicilian couple, opened the resort in 2000; Michael’s family bought the place and re-opened in 2009, and have been running it ever since. The main building has a “Mediterranean oasis” feel to it, while the three cottages (with four guest rooms in each) are painted in lively Caribbean colors. We enjoyed lunch on the outside patio overlooking the bay, and the food was spectacular. The chef is Michelin-rated and comes from Milan, and all of the base ingredients are imported from Italy. There were some unusual takes on Bahamian staples (grouper and tuna, for instance), and some dishes were just plain Old World style…like the platter of Italian meats and cheeses that we shared. We absolutely loved our afternoon at Cocodimama, and wish Michael and his family continued success. They certainly deserve it!

After lunch we drove down the street to an abandoned US Navy base. The property now belongs to Cocodimama, and is as yet undeveloped. The barracks still exist, and you have to weave through some overgrown pathways to reach another gorgeous pink sand beach. We now have some on the boat to show our guests…hopefully it’ll even dry out by the time they get here! From there, we made a few stops along the way home. Stacy was on the hunt for cilantro to make Rick’s Sojourner salsa (no luck), and Rene tried six different hardware/plumbing shops looking for a replacement part for the water-maker. (You’d think you could find a 3/8” pipe fitting somewhere on the island – you’d be wrong.) We had quite the productive day and made it back to the boat by sunset. LA and Susan loaned us their baggie of spare plumbing parts and donated a jerry can of water in case we couldn’t get the water maker up and running. Rene managed to rig a couple of pieces together well enough to make 30 gallons, and we’ll ask Skip and Betsy to bring us the replacement parts later this month.

Thursday was a big day for us – the supply boat arrived! That’s one thing you need to remember if you’re ever cruising in the islands. If you want anything beyond onions, potatoes, and maybe even green peppers and tomatoes if you’re lucky, you have to get to the store right after the supply boat arrives to get the best selection. The people at the grocery store told us that the dry goods boat would come on Tuesday, and the cold boat (produce, dairy, meat, etc.) would arrive on Thursday. Woo hoo! Right on schedule, the Tuesday boat was at the dock when we woke up; we got a little concerned when Thursday morning came around and none of us had seen or heard it arrive overnight or that morning. By 3pm, we began to wonder if something had gone wrong. We finally decided to go ashore and check it out; after a dinghy run to the Four Points Marina dinghy dock, we wandered down the road to the store. What a difference a day makes! The produce aisle was filled with avocados, mangos, plantains, fresh spinach, asparagus, seedless cucumbers, snow peas, parsley…everything except cilantro! Hey, we’re not complaining. We can always use the dried stuff. (Sorry, Rick!)

We have another blow coming through Saturday night…20-22 knot winds from the north, which means we’ll stay hunkered down here in Rock Sound for a few extra days. We have a long list of boat projects to work on (repairing the cockpit enclosure, changing the gen-set oil, varnishing the companionway stairs, etc.), so no worries about staying busy. Susan and LA are going to explore a few anchorages north of here, so we’ll be on our own for a couple of weeks before Skip and Betsy arrive. It’ll be strange not seeing Genesis off our beam…fortunately we’ll see them again soon in Staniel Cay.

Other than that, we hope Stacy's Aunt Sue and Uncle Don have a fabulous 23rd anniversary, and that the rest of you enjoy a romantic Valentine's Day. Weather permitting, we'll be sailing back to Bell Island on V-Day, and will meet up with Storyville and Anchor Management in Black Point later this week. Til next time...

Pictures with this Blog chapter:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasVI?feat=directlink

Kemah Reunion Time: Norman’s, Shroud, Hawksbill, & Warderick Wells Cays, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-02-10T16:35:00.009-05:00

Saturday, January 29 – Friday, February 4, 2011

Drum roll please…and help us welcome Storyville and Anchor Management to the Bahamas! Our Kemah friends, Deana, Troy, and Steve, have made it to the Exumas, and we finally got to meet up with them in Shroud Cay on Sunday. We intended to get to Shroud on Saturday, but a gorgeous offshore run from Bell Island ended with a bouncy trip through the inlet and a rolling anchorage courtesy of some strong north-westerly winds. LA and Susan recommended a last-minute detour to Norman’s Cay; it meant for an extra miserable hour on the water, but gave us a much calmer night’s sleep. Great call, guys! Our VHF still doesn’t transmit beyond about two miles, but Susan was able to reach Steve on Anchor Management to determine that he, Deana, and Troy were all still in Allan’s Cay and would arrive in Shroud the next day. We made it to Shroud around lunchtime, and quickly spotted Anchor Management and Storyville on mooring balls. We hopped in the dinghy and had a Kemah reunion on Storyville, along with their buddy boaters, Christie and Matt, on Kaleo.

Not wanting to waste the afternoon, we all rode up to the northern end of Shroud for a dinghy trip through the mangroves to Driftwood Beach. The cut wasn’t ripping like a water-slide as it had the last time we were there, but the views were as gorgeous as ever. We hiked back up to Camp Driftwood for some photo ops (much easier in Teva's than flip flops), and made our way back to the boats in time for sunset. Genesis had arrived while we’d been on the north side, and we all joined up for happy hour aboard Pipe Muh Bligh. It’s great to be surrounded by good friends!

Sunday we took the kayaks into the central creek on Shroud to play explorer. Motorized vessels aren’t allowed in the mangroves in the central and northern creeks, and we quickly understood why – depths are anywhere from zero to six inches at low tide, and it’s easy to ground in a kayak (let alone with an outboard motor). We towed the kayaks behind the dinghy to a beach near the mouth of the creek and set up camp. Deana and Troy joined us in their kayaks for a trip up the lazy river, and we were blown away by the gorgeous scenery. We saw small fish, sea birds, and even a small shark. (The creek dead-ends in the mangroves before it reaches the ocean, so we’re guessing the shark must’ve come from either the north or south end of the island. Quite a trek for the little guy!) We spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the beach, while Steve, Christie, and Matt took their own tour in the kayaks. We had a fantastic afternoon, and will definitely go back when we have boat guests.

On Monday, the Kemah crew headed south to Warderick Wells while we and Genesis made our way to Hawksbill Cay. It looked like a perfect day for sailing, and we saw ten sailboats in front of us – all with canvas out. Since Hawksbill was only three miles from Shroud, we didn’t even bother raising a sail. Talk about a downer…it’s just not right motoring when you have 15 knots of wind on the beam! Still, the stop in Hawksbill Cay was entirely worth it. We and Genesis were the only boats in the anchorage, and we enjoyed a beautiful walk along a sand bar at the cay’s north end during low tide. We also hiked up to the Loyalist ruins, only to see a snake warming itself on the rocks. Yuck!

We met up with the other boats at Warderick Wells on Tuesday afternoon. Warderick is a lot like summer camp – or at least how you imagine summer camp should be. There are four miles of hiking trails, plenty of snorkeling spots, blow holes, sandy beaches, and even a hammock near what used to be a "pirate’s lair". Of course, a visit to Warderick isn’t complete without a trip to Boo Boo Hill, where people leave pieces of driftwood painted with their boat names as they pass through. We hadn’t come prepared on our first visit to Warderick, but made sure to add our own sign when we reached Boo Boo Hill this time. We continued on to Boo Boo Beach, along the rocky shoreline, and across the causeway “bridge” (rocks) until we completed the loop back at the park HQ. Another day was spent snorkeling at Malabar Cays and Emerald Rock, where Rene spotted a HUGE lobster hiding under a ledge (sorry – it’s protected. No fishing!). The wildlife didn’t end at the snorkeling site; we watched a beautiful spotted eagle ray swim right past our stern, hiked with birds who would land on your palm looking for a hand-out, and saw a nurse shark and a stingray near the park HQ. Our most adventurous day was spent hiking a longer loop, starting at a sandy beach near Emerald Rock, up to the Davis Plantation ruins, along a rock wall to the Atlantic side, south along the rocky coastline to Pirate’s Lair near the southern mooring field, across the island to the western side, and back up along the beach and interior trails back to our starting point. Did we mention that 90% of this involved walking on jagged limestone?? Falling was definitely not an option! We were rewarded with spectacular views at every turn, along with a cold beer back at the beach. Add a few dinners and happy hours aboard different boats, plus an after-dinner concert courtesy of Troy and his guitar, and we absolutely loved our time in Warderick Wells.

Our next trip is a tour of the island of Eleuthera, which is a 42nm sail from Warderick Wells. LA and Susan read that Rock Sound, Eleuthera, is a good place for US-like provisioning, so we're excited about getting some "real" produce. We've been able to get onions, tomatoes, and green peppers in Staniel Cay, but haven't seen any mangoes, avocados, or anything more "fragile" (shipping-wise) since Nassau. Our friends, Skip and Betsy, are coming down from Annapolis for a visit at the end of February, so this is also a good opportunity to find a few extra provisioning items before they get here. In the meantime, we’re working diligently to clear out the guest room so they’ll have a place to sleep… guess we’ll just have to drink more so we can get those wine boxes off the bed! :-)

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasV?feat=directlink

Under da Sea…Staniel Cay, Bell Island, & Cambridge Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-02-03T22:16:00.008-05:00

Saturday, January 22 – Friday, January 28, 2011

Author’s note (Feb. 2): Happy Groundhog Day! We hear that Phil is under so much snow and ice that he refuses to make an appearance. We’ve seen the reports of record snowfalls and cold temps in the States, and hope everyone is keeping warm and safe. We’re currently in Warderick Wells, headquarters of the Exumas Cays Land & Sea Park, and one of maybe three spots that offers internet access between Nassau and George Town. We’ve had a chance to Skype our families and update the blog. We’re now trying to catch up with e-mails (yep, especially the ones that have been sitting in our in-boxes for over a week)…such is life without internet!

We stayed in Staniel Cay for a few extra days after taking Geoie to the airport, mainly to watch the NFL playoffs at the Yacht Club’s bar. Hey, it’s not often we get to watch cable television – we’re feeling spoiled! We crossed back over to the west side of Big Major’s through the tiny cut in the coral (this time at slack tide), and grabbed an anchorage spot ahead of the pack near shore. We spent Monday morning exploring Staniel’s grocery options, having better luck at the “blue store” (as opposed to the pink one) than at the larger Isles General. Apparently the delivery boat comes on Fridays – a good thing to know for next time. We left Big Major’s at 2pm for the 2-hour trip up to Bell Island, known for its proximity to some fantastic snorkeling sites. Bell is a private island (as are most of the cays in the Exumas park), but there are a number of protected anchorages around the perimeter. Our spot on Bell’s eastern shore worked fine the first night, but rolling waves knocked us about the second night. Chris Parker’s weather-net warned of a front (possibly with 30-50kt squalls) coming through on Wednesday, and we knew we had to find a better anchorage. We decided to go exploring on Tuesday with the idea of checking out anchorages near Compass Cay. Not so fast… the waves began beating us up as soon as we rounded the northern side of Bell Island, and we were thoroughly soaked by the time we got to the southern tip of Cambridge Cay. We managed a quick dinghy run past Little Halls Pond Cay (Johnny Depp’s Bahamian hideaway) and a cruise past the new mooring field off Cambridge; we just couldn’t safely get all the way to Compass, and decided Cambridge Cay would work well enough. Wednesday morning we meandered around the Bell Island shoreline to Cambridge Cay. There was plenty of room between the moored boats and the tiny cays to the west, and we prepared to drop the hook next to LA and Susan on Genesis. Rene barely got up to the anchor pulpit before a couple in a dinghy came racing towards us: “don’t even waste your anchor. You CANNOT anchor here!” Huh?! The park rules say that you can anchor near a mooring field as long as you don’t interfere with someone using the mooring ball. We were nearly 200’ from the field, but this couple – who were acting as volunteer “hosts”, collecting mooring fees and providing park information – apparently decided to change the rules. The “hosts” were even ruder to LA and Susan when they reached Genesis, threatening to call the warden if they didn’t move immediately. The single remaining mooring ball was unprotected and directly in the path of the coming squalls, so we and Genesis back-tracked to a cove on Bell Island’s eastern shore and settled in for the night. As much as we tried to forget about the experience at the mooring field, the “mooring Nazis” really left a bad taste in our mouths. Moorings became available later that day, but we weren’t about to give them the satisfaction!

We took advantage of calmer winds on Thursday and donned our snorkel gear for a trip down to the Rocky Dundas. The Dundas are two massive rocks southwest of Cambridge Cay, one of which has two caves that can be explored in calm weather (preferably at slack low tide). We had an easy dinghy ride from Bell to the Rocky Dundas, but really didn’t like what awaited us there: high water had covered the cave entrances, and waves that would’ve pushed us against the iron shore. Not giving up on our snorkeling adventure, we headed for the southwestern shore of Cambridge Cay. The Exumas park guide said there was good snorkeling in the protected cove, but we decided to investigate the reefs nearer the inlet via a sandy path that crossed the island. After weaving through brush and palm trees, we found ourselves on a secluded beach. A shallow reef began just feet from the beach, and a larger reef filled with stag-horn coral stands lay a few hundred yards northward in the crescent bay. A few small fish greeted us on the shallow reef, but the real treat came once we swam over to the stag-horn coral reef. We saw tons of parrot-fish, wrasse, blue tangs, and even a barracuda, and the coral formations were impressive. After lunch we jumped back in the dinghies and headed north to the Sea Aquarium near Soldier Cay. Amazing! The Sea Aquarium is like being in a giant fish bowl, where sergeant majors and tangs wait just under the surface for you to join (or maybe feed) them. We saw a family of queen angels, grey angels, parrots of various colors, and a multitude of other fish. We stayed until our fingers got numb (even with our wetsuits, it got cold!), and promised ourselves a return visit on the southbound trip.

For now, we’re heading north again on an outside run to Shroud Cay. The last thing we heard from our friends on Storyville and Anchor Management was that both boats were headed for Allan’s Cay at the top of the Exumas chain. Since we haven’t had internet access for nearly a week and the weather hasn’t exactly been great for cruising, we’re guessing that they’re still somewhere in the vicinity. Hopefully we’ll get in VHF range soon!

Pictures for this blog may be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasIV?feat=directlink

Shroud, Warderick Wells, & Staniel Cays, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-01-23T15:21:00.011-05:00

Monday, January 17 – Sunday, January 23, 2011

Please help us welcome our very first boat visitor of 2011! Geoie is one of our friends from our Rowdy racing crew in Texas, who also joined us for the Galveston-Veracruz race in 2008 and our Texas-Florida crossing in 2009. This was his first trip to the Bahamas, and we wanted to show him some of the out islands and all their rugged beauty.

We made the trip from Norman’s Cay to Nassau on Sunday and got a slip at the Nassau Harbour Club. We found ourselves docked right next to Alice and Steve on Ocean Star, another Kemah couple we’d met on Norman’s Cay who also know our friends Deana and Troy from Storyville. Geoie flew into Nassau on Monday, and we gave him the grand tour via the city’s bus system. We saw parts of Nassau that most tourists don’t get to see, and finally hopped off in downtown Nassau near the straw market. What a difference a week makes! Having been down here with LA and Susan the previous week when the market was filled with cruise passengers, we couldn’t believe how quiet it was this time. There weren’t any cruise ships in port on Monday afternoon, and many of the shops and stalls were closed. We walked around a bit looking for an Indian restaurant that had been recommended by a marina neighbor (it turned out to be closed as well), and finally ended up at Senior Frog’s on the waterfront. It was a total tourist trap, but a fun one! We wandered to the bar to a row of thong-clad stools (we’re not talking footwear here), and enjoyed a selection of local bevvies. (Stacy’s mango and Nassau Royal frozen daiquiri was the hands-down favorite!) Soon after, a waitress began pushing a stall around the restaurant offering freshly-made guacamole…how could we refuse?! The party soon began in true Senior Frog’s form, with drinking contests, karaoke, and shooters. A corporate group on a boondoggle kept us all entertained, and we ended up staying through dinner. We were back on Pipe in time to prep the boat for a series of approaching squalls, and were quite happy to be securely tied to the dock when the 30-knot winds came through.

We planned for a busy week of sightseeing and moving around since Geoie was leaving Friday morning. We convinced him to get a flight out of Staniel Cay to allow him to see more of the area, which meant we could hit a few islands on the way south. Tuesday morning we left Nassau to meet up with Genesis on Shroud Cay. We had an easy trip motoring thanks to winds on the nose, and Susan had dinner waiting for us when we reached the anchorage (what a sweetheart!). We dinghied through some beautiful mangroves on Wednesday morning and arrived at a beach facing the Atlantic. The currents raced through a small cut to a sand bank, and swimmers were floating through the chutes. After watching LA ride the chutes, we all hiked up to Camp Driftwood and its gorgeous 360-degree views of the area. You can’t imagine the incredible colors that stretch from the beach to the reef and the ocean beyond; as LA said, “it’s like a blue rainbow”. We jumped in our dinghies and followed the shoreline around the north side of Shroud Cay to the Atlantic-facing beaches. The scenery was absolutely breath-taking, and we wished we had brought along picnic lunches and towels for some serious time on the beach…alas, no time! Instead, we returned to the boats by 1pm for the 3-hour trip to Warderick Wells Cay, but promised ourselves we’d come back to Shroud for more quality time.

Warderick Wells Cay is home to the headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, a 176-square-mile marine sanctuary. The park offers mooring balls for a fee, and you can only reserve them a day in advance. Someone from the park comes on the VHF at 9am daily to let you know whether a mooring is available for you. It’s a popular spot, and there’s often a lengthy waiting list. Susan was able to get us on the list, and we were lucky enough to get two moorings side-by-side for Wednesday night. We arrived in the park around 4pm and went ashore to take advantage of what little time we had there. We hiked to Boo Boo Hill, an overlook filled with pieces of driftwood that have been decorated with boat names and left by cruisers over the years. The path continued on to Boo Boo Beach, a small patch of sand with nothing between it and Africa but thousands of miles of ocean. We stuck our toes in the water and barely made it back to the boat before sunset. LA and Susan joined us aboard Pipe for grilled steaks, potatoes, and home-made key lime pie, and 11pm rolled around before we knew what had happened.

Thursday morning Rene dug out the snorkel gear and he, Geoie, and LA tried to snorkel the coral gardens near the park HQ building. They’d been warned that the current was incredibly strong there, and it made hovering pretty much impossible. Susan and Stacy borrowed a two-person kayak from the park, and paddled out to meet up with the guys. We were hanging onto one of the dinghies when the kayak began to heel to starboard; before we could stop it, we were soon rolling into the water! Geoie and Rene helped Susan get into the dinghy, and Rene stabilized the kayak long enough for Stacy to climb aboard. She stayed on for about 30 seconds before the damn thing rolled over again. It turns out that there was a crack in the shell that allowed water to seep inside; with the kayak shell full of water, there was no way to keep it upright. Stacy, Susan, and the kayak moved over to the dinghy with LA, and we tried to tow the kayak back to shore. Simple, right? Not so much… The kayak flipped over a few times and even went stern-up at one point (picture the scene in Titanic when the ship breaks in half and the back of the boat sticks out of the water…only with a pink kayak instead of a cruise ship). We finally made it back to the beach, drained enough water from the kayak to muscle it back on its rack, and got back to the boats for the 18nm trip down to Staniel Cay.

So you know that old saying about “when pigs fly”? Well how about “when pigs swim”?! Brandon and Carryn (Sol Mate) had told us about swimming pigs in the Big Major’s Spot anchorage near Staniel Cay, but we were having a hard time believing we’d actually see it. Consider us believers, because we weren’t anchored for more than a half-hour before we saw a couple in a dinghy approach the beach and two massive spotted pigs come running out to greet them. You’ve GOT to be kidding! We jumped in our dinks, leftover pineapple in hand (we’ve heard the piggy’s like treats), and zoomed to the beach. Another dinghy was already there with a couple and their two kids, but the pigs were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the pigs came racing down the beach into the water, swimming right up against the other dinghy to the delight (or maybe horror?) of the kids. We became an item of interest when we threw the pineapple into the water, but found ourselves shunned when the pigs turned their noses up at the pineapple. (Granted, it wasn’t very ripe – which was why there was any left from our own breakfast!) LA and Susan soon joined us with baby carrots. Those were more successful than the pineapple, but weren’t received quite as well as the bread from a third dinghy. These pigs are finicky!

LA and Susan joined us for a final dinner with Geoie on Thursday, and we woke up early Friday morning to get him to the airport on Staniel Cay. He had had such a great time so far…if only his vacation could’ve ended as well as it had begun. When Geoie and Rene reached the airport, they were told that the airline couldn’t find his reservation and the flight to Nassau was full. Nooooo! Geoie was able to buy a ticket on the afternoon flight, but it would mean his missing his connection back to Houston. Without any alternatives, Geoie and Rene came back to Pipe – only to learn that there was a westerly blow coming through and that we had to move the boat NOW (we’d passed high tide and were losing water to get through the shallow cut to the new anchorage). With Stacy at the helm, Rene headed to the bow to pull up the anchor…and dropped his walkie-talkie. It floated for a couple of seconds and then went glug, glug, glug down to the bottom. Noooo! Okay…something to ask Mom to bring down when she visits. Reverting to hand signals, we got the anchor up and followed Genesis through a very narrow cut on the north side of Big Major’s. It was nearly two hours past high tide and the current was ripping through the cut. We were doing 8kts as we passed through the 40-foot-wide opening, jagged coral heads seeming dangerously close. On the plus side, we were in the protected anchorage between Big Major’s and Little Major’s in under 15 minutes – much faster than if we’d gone around the south side of Big Major’s and past Staniel Cay. It took us a few minutes to find a good anchoring spot, but we finally found a sandy patch that allowed plenty of swinging room between us and the other boats. Genesis wasn’t so lucky, and re-anchored four times before finding a better spot on the north side of the island. We dinghied in to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch and some internet, with the intention of taking Geoie to the airport after lunch. We’d just ordered our burgers when we heard an unknown voice calling Pipe Muh Bligh over the VHF. Never a good sign. Wouldn’t you know, with opposing current and wind, we were “sailing” on our anchor. We managed to get within a few feet of our neighbor boat and they understandably got nervous. Rene tore off in the dinghy back to Pipe, and Geoie and Stacy rushed to finish lunch and get Geoie to his 2:45pm flight. We made it by 2pm, and couldn’t understand why there were no other customers there – or even a plane – at 3pm. Island time, mon! What they didn’t tell us was that the plane actually made three stops en route to Nassau. Depending on the loads, Staniel Cay could be the first stop…or the last. Apparently the rest of the passengers knew this, because golf carts full of people began arriving around 3pm. The plane finally showed up after 3:30pm, and Geoie was on his way. We feel absolutely awful that he had such a tough time getting home, and hope he can eventually remember the good parts of his visit!

We had a bit too much excitement on Saturday night. The big storm finally came through with high winds and rain, causing everyone in the anchorage to keep a sharp eye on the distance between them and their neighbors. One boat drug around 10pm, first getting its anchor caught on one boat’s chain, and later brushing up against a trawler in the back of the anchorage. Air horns were blaring to alert of dragging, and the “drag-ee” (aka the trawler captain) could be heard on the VHF talking about his injuries following the collision. It’s always a little scary to be involved in a dragging incident, and we were fortunate to be out of the line of fire this time.

After hiding out between Big and Little Major’s for the blow, we’ve returned to our anchorage west of Big Major’s Spot for another night. We’ll likely head north again on Monday or Tuesday – back to Shroud or Warderick Wells – before another blow comes through on Wednesday. We’re hoping to connect with Storyville and Anchor Management this week (they arrived in Nassau last Thursday), and will spend some more time exploring the central Exumas. Til next time!

P.S. Enjoy more pictures here!

Allan’s, Highbourne, & Norman’s Cays, Exumas, Bahamas

2011-01-18T08:38:00.011-05:00

Saturday, January 8 – Saturday, January 15, 2010

Welcome to our first stop in the Exumas chain of islands, and what a beautiful stop it is! We’ve joined 10 other boats in the anchorage nestled between Allan’s and Leaf Cays, surrounded by white sand beaches, rocky limestone outcroppings, and gorgeous turquoise waters.

The area’s claim to fame is a group of prehistoric iguanas that live on two of the islands. As the guidebooks say, all you have to do is dinghy over and stand on the beach, and iguanas begin to come out of the proverbial woodwork. The guidebooks also recommend that you do NOT feed them (they may bite), but that doesn’t stop the fast boats that bring inebriated tourists from Nassau offering fruits and vegetables planted on sticks. (Hey – at least they’re not quite so stupid as to risk their digits hand-feeding the iguanas!) We wait for the tour boats to leave, and make our way to the beach on Leaf Cay. As predicted, we’re barely out of the dinghy before a handful of iguanas start wandering towards us looking for handouts. Apparently they haven’t stuffed themselves on the tour boat offerings, because many of them come within mere inches of us. The iguanas are anywhere from 18” to three feet long, and have red and blue coloring on their faces and spines/scales. We’re soon joined by over 30 of these creatures, and some are quite aggressive. All you have to do is wiggle your fingers and they come running. What a bizarre sight!

Our next dinghy stop is a small beach on SW Allen’s Cay with its lone palm tree swaying above the brush. It’s a gorgeous setting, and we make our way (avoiding more iguanas along the path) to the Atlantic-facing beach on the other side. There are smaller, 6’-tall palm trees all over the island, but only one tree that can be seen from a distance. We have no idea what causes this phenomenon, but it certainly makes for a good picture. We really can’t believe we’re in such a beautiful spot, and can only imagine what the rest of the Exumas have in store for us.

On Monday we’re off to Highbourne Cay, which is a whopping four-mile trip from Allan’s. Highbourne is the most northerly inhabited island in the Exuma chain, but visitors must ask permission to venture beyond the marina on this three-mile-long, privately-owned island. The marina itself provides us with our first grocery store since leaving Nassau, and the prices remind us why we’re so heavily weighed down with provisions from the States: $6.50 for a dozen eggs, $8.50 for a bag of cookies, and $9.30 for a small box of cereal. Ouch! Fortunately we don’t need anything but a couple of limes for sundowners, and manage to depart without any serious damage to our wallets. Next up is a dinghy tour of the far side of the island to see some of Highbourne’s eight gorgeous beaches…or at least that’s the plan. The wind has kicked up some rough seas (at least it feels that way in the dinghy), so we turn back to explore a protected cove on the lee side of the island. LA and Susan are more adventurous than we are, and continue on around the island before meeting us at the cove. Once again, we’re floored by the color of the water. We’d been told that the Exumas were even prettier than the Abacos, but had a hard time believing it until the proof was right in front of us. Everywhere we turn, we see postcard-perfect scenery. The sea is made up of a dozen different shades of turquoise, depending on depths, sunlight, and bottom conditions. There’s a single house high on the hill above the cove, and we can only imagine the views that the owners enjoy from their wrap-around porch. Heavenly!

As gorgeous as the cove is, there really isn’t much to do on Highbourne if you’re not staying at the marina. We don’t need the grocery store yet, and we can’t use the marina’s internet access if we aren’t paying for a slip. There isn’t a restaurant or bar on the island, and exploration beyond the ship store isn’t exactly encouraged. After one night anchored out, we make a last-minute decision to motor 8 miles down to Norman’s Cay. There’s a north-northeasterly blow coming through Wednesday-Friday, and Norman’s seems to offer as much protection – or more – as Highbourne Cay. Better yet, Norman has plenty of snorkeling and kayaking opportunities, not to mention MacDuff’s Bar & Grille. Some of you may have heard of Norman’s Cay in the 1980s, when it became somewhat notorious thanks to the…uhhh…”extracurricular activities” of its owner, alleged drug lord Carlos Lehder. Being on the island now, you’d never know that it was once the target of various drug enforcement agencies. The only remnant of the “bad old days” is (or was) an old DC-3 drug plane that crashed near the southern anchorage just short of the runway; very little of the plane remains visible today, but you can still snorkel the wreck and let your imagination run wild.

The weather kept us on board for our first couple of days in Norman, but we were finally able to go exploring on Saturday in the dink. Norman's Cay has a bight (think "big horseshoe-shaped bay") with mangroves and a blue hole. We had to maneuver our way through the shallows, but it was so worth it! We saw stingrays, sandbars, and gorgeous colors. The waves from the Atlantic were crashing against the outer reef, but we were completely protected. We turned back before we wanted to, but we really didn't want to get stuck on an outgoing tide. If we grounded, it would be a long walk back - towing a 200lb dinghy - to the boat!

We’re heading back to Nassau on Sunday to meet up with a friend from Kemah. Geoie will be our first boat visitor of the year, and we’re excited to show him some of the beautiful sights down here. Nassau will also give us a chance to get back online; we haven’t had internet in over a week, and have been told not to expect much before we arrive in Staniel Cay. We’ll be in Staniel on Friday so that Geoie can catch his flight back to the US, so we’ll try to post another blog then. Cheers!

Pictures with this Blog chapter:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasII?feat=directlink

Back in the Bahamas!

2011-01-05T18:43:00.007-05:00

Sunday, January 2 - Friday, January 7, 2011

We’re in the Bahamas!!! We’ve finally made it, and are currently in Nassau at the Harbor Club marina. We’re sharing a 100’ slip with friends, LA and Susan, from Genesis, and plan to leave for the Exumas in the morning.

Our weather window came through for us, and we were able to leave Miami’s Government Cut at 7pm Sunday evening. We had an incredibly calm crossing; the journey from our anchorage in the Venetian Causeway to the end of the ship channel was more stressful than the rest of the 160nm to Nassau! If you aren’t familiar with Miami, it’s a massive port city filled with cruise ships and commercial vessels. We had six cruise ships in port on Sunday, all of whom headed out to sea shortly before we did. We also found ourselves racing a container ship as it left its dock in Fisherman’s Channel. One minute it was still tied to the dock, and the next – just as we were alongside it, mind you – it was on its way to the inlet. Yikes! We managed to get over to the far side of the channel ahead of the freighter, only to end up dodging speedboats, ferries, tugs, and jet skis en route to the fuel dock. After the requisite fuel, water, and pump-out, we motored over to Fisher Island to await Genesis. We watched the progression of cruise ships leave the port, along with another container ship, and felt better about our departure time; at least we wouldn’t be dodging those things on the way out! Silly us, we forgot one simple thing: as long as the cruise ships were leaving the port, none of the commercial vessels could come in. Where were they? Waiting at the end of the inlet, of course! The first monster turned into the channel just as we approached the jetties. Apparently the captain didn’t like having to share the inlet with a couple of sailboats; five loud horn blasts, the boating signal warning of a potential collision, soon filled our ears. We were already trying to get outside of the channel to give him plenty of room. LA and Susan were right behind us, and they too got their five-horn salute from the freighter. Oh, well…crisis averted…right? Nope! This commercial ship was simply the first in a very long line. Looking to the north, we could see a dozen other behemoths waiting to come in. We quickly set a course south of the channel and out of the way. Next stop, the Bahamas!

After the initial excitement of our Miami departure, we enjoyed calm seas all the way to the Bahamas Bank. We reached Mackie Shoal around 9am and anchored on the bank to sleep and fix a few things. Rene had noticed a sharp decline in RPMs and speed at one point overnight and figured it was likely a fuel filter problem. LA gave him a few suggestions over the VHF that gave us a temporary fix, and Rene pulled out the filter once we were anchored on the bank. Obviously it had been awhile since we had replaced the filter, because that thing was nasty! We spent the day at anchor and left at 8pm for the 80nm trip to Nassau. We had another calm trip through the “Tongue of the Ocean” (quite a feat considering its 9,000’ depths), and reached the Nassau Harbor Club marina at 10am. The customs and immigration process was much easier than expected, and we were declared “legal” by noon. First up: take down the yellow quarantine flag and raise the Bahamian visitor flag. Woo hoo!

Most people visiting Nassau for the first time would probably do the usual touristy things: go to the Atlantis resort, see the beach on Paradise Island, go to the straw market, etc. What do cruisers do? Take advantage of a fresh-water source and clean the boat! We thought it would be a two-hour job. Seven hours later, we finally called it a day. There was a Starbucks across the street from the marina that had wi-fi (not easy to come by in the Bahamas), so we spent some time calling our families, checking weather, and updating the blog.

We have a weather front coming our way on Thursday, so we’ll leave Nassau for a protected anchorage in Allan Cay and will likely be holed up there for 2-3 days. We won't have internet until we get further south in the Exumas, but will send SPOT updates whenever we reach a new anchorage. Hopefully we'll also find some good internet connectivity that lets us upload photos. We know we have some beautiful islands coming our way, and want to share them with everyone. :-)

Pictures with this Blog chapter:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011BahamasI?feat=directlink

Bienvenidos a Miami

2011-01-01T18:37:00.006-05:00

Thursday, December 30, 2010 – Sunday, January 2, 2011

Bienvenidos a Miami! We’ve finally made it to our jumping-off point of Miami, Florida – Pipe Muh Bligh’s last US port of call (we hope) for the foreseeable future! We’ll definitely fly back to the States for visits with family and friends, but we plan to keep the boat in the Caribbean for the next 5+ years.

We left Palm Beach on Wednesday afternoon with friends and buddy boaters, LA & Susan. Winds were mostly on the nose, but the forecasters predicted relatively calm seas and 10-15kt winds – perfect for an easy overnight motor to Miami’s Government Cut. The forecast even proved accurate for the first six hours of the trip, and we enjoyed a beautiful night remaining 2-3 mile offshore. Soon after midnight, however, the winds piped up to a steady 18-20 knots, often gusting to 25kts. The waves joined in the fun, and we all found ourselves getting bounced from side to side by 4-6’ rollers. Susan and the two cats (our Tux and their Lulu) were all seasick, and LA and Susan were likely wondering whether they’d made the right decision to make the trip with us. :-)

We arrived at the Miami inlet around 5:30am and tried to avoid the freighters and other big ships coming and going through the channel. Not long before, we’d heard the Coast Guard put out a securité for a 430’ mega-yacht; they’d placed a temporary restriction zone 100 yards around the vessel, and no one was allowed to come within that zone until it was docked. We later discovered that this yacht was owned by either the Prime Minister or the Emir of Qatar (depends on which website you believe), and it’s one of the largest private yachts in the world. We don’t know whether the PM was on board, but we’re guessing the USGC doesn’t create restricted zones for just anyone!

We reached our anchorage in the Venetian Causeway and dropped the hook near Belle Island. It’s a well-protected spot and offers a short dinghy ride to South Beach and its many shops, restaurants, and opportunities for people-watching (not to mention the 25-cent bus service). After spending the day touring the area and enjoying Cuban food at David’s Café, we all rang in the New Year aboard Pipe Muh Bligh. We were surrounded by at least four different fireworks displays at midnight, and it felt like we had front-row seats. What a great way to celebrate New Year’s Eve! We also got some terrific news – our friends from Kemah who began their cruising adventure just before Christmas have made it safely to Key West. Hopefully they’ll take some time to decompress and enjoy the Florida Keys before they cross over to the Bahamas.

Speaking of the Bahamas…it looks like we’re finally getting our weather window for a Gulf Stream crossing! The winds are right and the seas are supposed to calm down beginning Sunday. There isn’t another cold front in the forecast for at least a week, which means we should have a benign crossing to the Exumas. We plan to leave Miami Sunday night, working our way north of Bimini to Mackie Shoal. We’ll likely stop there for a short rest (you can anchor on the Bahamas Bank if the winds are calm), and will continue on to Nassau to check in with Customs and Immigration. We hope to stay in a marina there for a couple of days, and then it’s on to the top of the Exumas chain. We can’t wait!

We know that internet will be a bit harder to come by once we leave Nassau, but we’ll send SPOT messages during the crossing and each time we anchor off of a new island in the Exumas. Our SPOT messages are automatically posted to Rene’s Facebook page, so hopefully everyone can follow our progress as we move south. We feel like we’re starting a new chapter of our cruising life, finally embarking on a route we’d initially planned to follow when we first left Kemah. We’re so glad we’ve had an opportunity to explore the East Coast and Abacos for the past 22 months, and wouldn’t give it up for anything. Still, we’re so excited to begin our journey down to the Caribbean…maybe we’ll see some of you there!

Pictures with this Blog chapter:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2011Miami?feat=directlink

Christmas in Lake Worth, FL

2010-12-28T16:54:00.010-05:00

Wednesday, December 15 - Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Do you ever have those days when you wonder where the time has gone? It's hitting us that we've been here in Lake Worth (Palm Beach, FL, for you landlubbers) for two weeks. We fully expected to be in the Bahamas by Christmas, but somehow we still find ourselves here. Not to worry, Lake Worth is a great place to be "stuck" while waiting on a weather window. There's a dinghy beach nearby, which is just a couple of blocks from grocery, drug, and liquor stores in Palm Beach Gardens. You can also catch a bus to the Gardens Mall nearby, or walk to our new favorite shop, Carmine's Gourmet Market.

We actually arrived at the Lake Worth anchorage on December 15th. We made fantastic time from Fort Pierce, and even managed to get through the four timed bridges without having to wait. If you haven't made the Fort Pierce-to-Lake Worth run, there are ten bridges along the 54nm route. The first six are high-rises or open-on-demand bascules, but the last four really test a sailor's patience. They open on a set schedule, and are spaced in such a way that most sailboats need to really gun the engine to make it through. If you aren't at the bridge at its scheduled opening time, you don't go through until the next opening (typically 30 minutes later). Don't even THINK about asking the bridge-tenders to hold the bridge for you! It can actually get kind of dangerous, given that boats are racing to get from one bridge to another, and sometimes get too close to their neighbors. There were a couple of instances where we had to put on the "brakes" (hard-reverse) because someone ahead of us had to slow down quickly for another passing boat. Fortunately we found ourselves at the end of a 10-boat caravan a few miles out of Lake Worth; as long as we kept up with the end of the pack, we could sneak through the bridges with everyone else.

The anchorage was fairly quiet when we arrived, thanks to a two-day weather window that had everyone running for an off-shore jump to the Abacos. As much as we wanted to be Bahamas-bound with them, we had a few things to do in Palm Beach before we could head out. Rene had a date with our water-maker guy for a warranty repair job, and we were anxiously awaiting Tux's authorization papers from the Bahamas. In the meantime, we bought even more provisions at the local Publix (still love those two-for-ones!) and walked to the ever-so-chic Gardens Mall. Our friends, LA and Susan, arrived a day after we did, so we knew we'd be in good company for however long we ended up being here.

As everyone probably knows, there's been some crazy weather around the country for the past couple of weeks. Even Florida had hard-freeze warnings, with temps in the low-to-mid 20s the first few days we were here. Strong northerly winds meant that no one in his right mind would be crossing the Gulf Stream, and our anchorage saw more and more boats pile in over the next few days. We headed down to Riviera Beach Marina on the 22nd, where we had the water maker serviced and were able to get Tux to a local vet (his papers finally arrived - he's legal for the Bahamas!). We were back in the anchorage Thursday afternoon, and made holiday plans with LA
& Susan for a Christmas Eve brunch aboard Genesis and Christmas dinner on Pipe Muh Bligh. We got a welcome surprise soon after we returned to the anchorage, as Jim and Laurie on Kismet arrived and dropped the hook next to us. We'd first met them on Sojourner in Annapolis over Labor Day, and saw them again in October at the Deltaville Boat Yard. We had no idea they'd be in Lake Worth, and were happy they could join us for the holidays. In the world of cruising, when we're far away from our families for the holidays, it's all about spending time with good friends. Thanks to Genesis and Kismet for sharing Christmas with us!

Remember that crazy weather we mentioned earlier? Well, a front blew through the area the day after Christmas that effectively made us prisoners on our boats for a day and a half. We had sustained winds of 25-30kts on Sunday, with gusts of 35-40kts. Luckily, only one boat had to re-anchor (granted, it took him three tries) and our own anchor held steady. Thanks to modern technology in the form of SSB calls with Sol Mate and Facebook updates from Sojourner, Civil Twilight, and Thate Wate, we also knew that our friends in the Bahamas were about to get hit by the same front. Fortunately everyone was able to find a hidey-hole, and they all made it through safely - albeit with a bit of rockin' and rollin', we're sure.

It looks like our days of waiting may finally be at an end. We've finally spotted a potential window for a Gulf Stream crossing, thanks to a block of days with south-easterly/southerly winds. We'll leave Wednesday evening for an overnight offshore run to Miami, and will sit it out in the Venetian Causeway until Sunday or Monday. We'll keep a close eye on the 5+ weather forecast sources we use, and hope that they'll come to an agreement in the next few days. Fingers crossed...we may actually be in the Bahamas by this time next week!

Reaching Fort Pierce, FL: Days 4 & 5

2010-12-19T10:36:00.006-05:00

Saturday, December 11 – Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Welcome to Fort Pierce, FL! Fort Pierce is a great stop-over on the way to Lake Worth, particularly because our friends, LA and Susan from Genesis, are in a marina here getting some boat work done. We haven’t seen them since our stop in Fernandina Beach last fall, and are excited to spend some time with them. We arrived here Sunday morning after two more days in the ICW. We cruised through pea soup-like fog on Saturday morning and ended up in a pretty little anchorage behind a spoil island south of Melbourne. The cruising guide warned that the island could be busy with locals on weekends, but we figured no one would be crazy enough to brave the 25 degree overnight temps. Wrong! There were two tents on the island with a bunch of people in party mode. One boat left around sunset, but the group from the second boat stuck it out and spent the night on the island. Brrrr!

We left our little spoil island at sunrise Sunday morning. A cold front was expected to blow through, and the winds picked up to 25-30kts around 10am. Other than a few 35-knot gusts that pushed us over, we had an easy 40-mile run to Fort Pierce and dropped the hook off of Harbortown Marina around 2pm. We had a bit of excitement in the anchorage as we arrived, thanks to a local boat that had dragged into the channel. The local sheriff boat tried to reset the anchor, and finally short-scoped the line to keep it out of the ICW. Given the fact that this boat was about 100’ from us, we decided to keep a close eye on it! Tow Boat US soon came out to the boat with the owner on board, and the boat was re-anchored closer to the bridge. The sheriff’s department asked us to notify the coast guard (or call 911) if any boats started dragging into the channel again, and they were on their way. A couple of hours later, a strong gust sent another boat dragging, and soon two of our unmanned neighbor boats were tangled up bow to stern. We called the USCG as requested, but since the boats were out of the channel, no one came to do anything. We eventually felt comfortable that nothing else would start moving, and went ashore for a grocery run and a quick hello with friends LA and Susan.

The next morning, the tangled boats had freed themselves, and one of the two began heading for the channel. We called the coast guard again, and they apparently sent the local sheriff boat to the rescue. What did they do? They grounded the boat on a sandbar outside of the marina and on a rising tide, ahead of all the boats in the anchorage. Guess where the prevailing winds were coming from…yep, from that same direction. It took about 20 minutes (just long enough for the sheriff’s boat to disappear) before that boat began moving again. This time, it made its way through the anchorage and headed straight for us! Rene ran topside to grab a couple of fenders, knowing there was only so much we could do to avoid a collision. We lucked out at the last minute, when Pipe swung on her anchor and the boat passed by with about 30’ to spare. Rene was immediately on the horn with the sheriff’s office again, who assured him that they were working on it at that very minute. Uh huh, sure. Long story short: the boat eventually crossed the channel on its own and grounded on the other side of the ICW. No one ever came to deal with it again, but at least it could no longer endanger any boats in the anchorage.

That evening, Susan and LA invited us over for dinner aboard Genesis. We were about 50’ from their boat when our dinghy engine died. Oops! Apparently we had water in the carburetor again, and the engine died each time Rene put it in gear. He was finally able to jerry-rig the engine enough to get us to Genesis, and we managed to forget about it while we enjoyed Susan’s delicious veal scaloppini and caught up on the past year. Rene got the engine started again long enough to get us back to Pipe, and thankfully it didn’t die until we were within arm’s reach of the boat...literally. :-)

Tuesday morning was spent tearing apart the carburetor, and Rene had the outboard up and running again in time for lunch with LA & Susan (plus the local marina cats). An after-lunch grocery run ended with happy hour aboard Genesis, and it was nearly 8pm before we looked at our watches. We raced back to Pipe to make dinner and prep for our departure the next morning. Stacy started the generator and got dinner going while Rene raised the dinghy; suddenly, Rene was racing down the stairs to shut off the gen. Massive overheating! Thank goodness he’d heard something “funny” from outside and was able to shut down the gen before we killed another impeller. The culprit? A jellyfish in the strainer. Yuck! Rene decided to check the main engine strainer while he was in the bilge…and found a 3-inch (very dead) fish. Double yuck!

We’ll be leaving early Wednesday morning for the 50-mile trip down to Lake Worth (North Palm Beach). We have some minor boat work and provisioning to get done, plus a trip to the vet for Tux. We’ll likely be there through early next week, at which time we’ll run offshore to Miami to stage in Dinner Key. Bahamas, here we come!

Southbound in the ICW: Days 1, 2, & 3

2010-12-10T17:33:00.010-05:00

Wednesday, December 8 - Friday, December 10, 2010

Do you remember how we said we wanted to do a 2-day offshore run from Fernandina to Lake Worth/Palm Beach? Well, Mother Nature apparently decided that we were being too aggressive. We planned to jump offshore Wednesday morning, but a last look at the weather forecast scared us off. 20-30kts of wind, 4-6' seas building to 6-8' plus a 2' northerly swell on top of that, with a 6-second period between the waves. Big waves are one thing; big, closely-spaced waves are a different animal altogether!

So, into "the ditch" we go. We aren't exactly thrilled that our 50-hour trip to Lake Worth has turned into a 6-day voyage, but there's something to be said for calm seas and not having to clean up after a seasick kitty! We've also had three days of low temps in the upper 20s, which would've made for a miserable couple of overnights. On the positive side, the tides have been with us so far, and we managed to travel 65 miles to an anchorage south of St. Augustine on Day 1. As Rene said, it was a good ICW day - we didn't ground and only scraped one bridge! (Fortunately, it was only the VHF antenna.)

Day 2 turned out to be just as uneventful. After being passed by three power boats early on, we had the waterway to ourselves. Our only real excitement came near Mantazas Inlet, where our cruising guide warned of shoals and plenty of groundings. Nothing like being told by the chart plotter that we’re traveling on land! Truth be told, we never saw less than 12’. Note to selves: no matter what the chart says, always trust the markers. We’ve again been lucky with tides, and our 6.5+ knot boat speed has brought us to the Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach much earlier than planned. It’s a good thing, too, since we’ve discovered a leak coming from…uhhh…”somewhere”. The bilge pump began coming on half-way into Day 1, and while we initially thought it was our water tank leak again, Rene has since determined that it’s salt water…as in “outside water is somehow coming into the boat”. Nooooo! After taking everything out of the lazarette, Rene found the source and was able to fix the problem. Disaster averted…other than having a heck of a clean-up job ahead of us. We spent the rest of the day checking out the city’s rejuvenation of Beach Street in downtown Daytona, followed by a stop at the local West Marine (as a marina neighbor said after seeing our WM bags, “you’ve been to church!”). We couldn’t find a grocery store nearby, but discovered – thanks to Trip Advisor and Google – a fantastic Italian restaurant less than a mile from the marina. If you’re ever in Daytona Beach, PLEASE go to Don Vito’s on Int’l Speedway Blvd. It’s rated #1 on Trip Advisor’s list of Daytona restaurants, and for good reason. The owners, Barbara and Jimmy, are incredibly warm, friendly hosts. How often do you go into a restaurant and get to have a real conversation with the folks running the place? It’s a true “family joint” in every sense of the word (their sons even do much of the cooking), and everything is home-made using fresh ingredients. The marinara recipe has been in Jimmy’s family for five generations, and there are so many mouth-watering dishes on the menu that you want to order a second meal to take home. We started with the garlic knots: think of golf ball-sized knots of dough, oven-baked and served with garlic-infused olive oil and marinara sauce. YUMMY! Our main dishes were lasagna made with tender, homemade pasta, and the owners’ favorite recipe, Boscaiola Alla Don Vito, with meat sauce, peas, and mushrooms. Absolutely delicious! The portions were huge and the prices were incredibly reasonable. Don Vito’s has only been open for four months, but they’ve already got a strong following thanks to local word of mouth and some great online reviews. While we were there, two young guys came in because they’d been told that Don Vito’s had “the best pizza in Daytona Beach”…very useful in a town with three colleges! We had such a fun evening talking to Jimmy and Barbara, and wish them continued success. They certainly deserve it!

Day 3 has begun with a bit of a surprise – RAIN. It poured overnight, and showers have continued to pass through the area. We got out of the marina and into the ICW by 7:30am, and were amazed to find ourselves passing three trawlers traveling together (it turns out one had a mechanical problem, so all were taking it slowly). The skies cleared by mid-morning, and we saw an incredible double rainbow behind us as we reached Ponce Inlet. The wildlife has been out in full force, with rare white pelicans in Mosquito Lagoon and random dolphin sightings throughout the day (I borrowed this pelican shot from Google). It’s apparently too late in the season for manatees in the Hanover Canal (we saw dozens of them last fall), but we may get to see them in Fort Pierce or Lake Worth. We’ve again made great time, and managed to get through the NASA Causeway Bridge before rush hour – very important since it shuts down for 90 minutes! We’re anchored on the south side of the bridge, and have 80 miles to go to reach Fort Pierce. It’s too much for a single day, so we’ll break it up over the weekend and should arrive by Sunday. We’re hoping to hook up with friends LA and Susan from Genesis in Fort Pierce, and will likely be more than ready for a “rest day” (read “non-travel day”) by then. That should put us in Lake Worth on Tuesday or Wednesday, where we’ll get some water-maker maintenance done and will continue on to Dinner Key, Miami.

We’ve learned that our friends Rick and Linda on Sojourner and Alan and Gerri on Civil Twilight have both made the jump from Lake Worth to the Abacos. We’re really sorry we didn’t get to see them before they left, but hope they had a safe voyage and that we’ll meet again somewhere surrounded by blue water. Carryn, Brandon, and Bella from Sol Mate are in Dinner Key now, and we may make it down there before they jump over to the Exumas. If not, we’ll just have to catch up with them further south. We’re also excited to see our old Kemah neighbors, Deana and Troy, who are starting their cruising adventure this month along with another Kemah friend, Steve. We’re meeting up with them in the Exumas as well, and plan to buddy boat through the Bahamas and Caribbean over the next few months. Can’t wait!

Back in Fernandina Beach, FL

2010-12-05T10:58:00.014-05:00

Sunday, November 21 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Yep, we've finally made it to Fernandina, our top spot for leaving the boat whenever we have places to go and people to see. This time it's a "road trip" to Houston, TX, where we still have 25 boxes of wine sitting in a friend's closet. We're hoping to leave the boat on a mooring ball, get a rental car on Wednesday, attend the St. Mary's Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday, and drive to Houston on Friday. One possible catch...our friends from Civil Twilight arrived in St. Mary's a few days before us, and have heard that Fernandina's moorings have been full all week. We'll anchor out if we have to, but we'd feel a whole lot safer leaving Pipe secured to a mooring ball since we'll be gone for five days.

We left Beaufort Sunday morning for the 125nm trip to Fernandina Beach, FL. NOAA forecasted light winds and 2-3' seas, so imagine our surprise when we had 3-5' seas on the beam. At least NOAA got the "light winds" part right - they were too light to put a sail up, so we bounced left to right...left to right...all night. Good thing we aren't prone to sea-sickness! We arrived at the St. Mary's inlet in time to ride the current up the channel (8 knots, baby!); the gods must've been smiling on us after our rough overnight, because the marina had a single mooring ball available when we called at 7:15am. The trip was definitely starting out right!

We spent a couple of days working on boat projects, and picked up our minivan for the Houston trip on Wednesday afternoon. Talk about luxury! We'd rented the van hoping we'd have enough room to bring back the remaining 25 boxes of wine, but had no idea it would be so spacious. The second and third rows (seats) folded into the floor, leaving what amounted to an incredibly comfortable cargo van. Captain's chairs, satellite radio, cruise control...even his and hers temperature controls. Heaven! The only problem with our impromptu Houston trip was our food supply; we'd already begun freezing fresh meats for the Bahamas (including 4lbs of chicken breasts), and couldn't leave them on board for five days with no way to re-charge the batteries. Our refrigerator and freezer would have to be turned off while we were gone, meaning we'd have to get rid of as much food as we could. We vowed to eat every meal on board until we left, and the remaining items were used up thanks to some creative menu-ing. Stacy came up with a Moroccan couscous salad for the Thanksgiving potluck to use up some of our chicken, and Brandon and Carryn from Sol Mate joined us for a lemon chicken & asparagus dinner after arriving in Fernandina on Wednesday. The last of the freezer contents were used to make meals for the road, and we were finally able to shut down the freezer.

On Thursday morning, Brandon, Carryn, and Bella joined us in the minivan for the drive to St. Mary's. St. Mary's is famous in the boating world for hosting a Thanksgiving feast for cruisers, which has been held every year for the past ten years. Local volunteers make enough turkeys and hams to feed the 100 or so boats filling the harbor, and visiting cruisers bring all of the sides. A local waterfront hotel/restaurant provides the setting, and people can bring their own dishes, wine, and table decorations if they want to make it even more festive. Gerri and Alan invited us aboard Civil Twilight for a pre-dinner refreshment (fantastic bloody mary's, Gerri!), after which we joined the masses waiting in line for the 1pm dinner bell. We walked through the double doors to find two long tables lined with every dish you could imagine, plus rolls, sweet breads, and desserts spread out over the bar. After piling heaps of food onto our plates, we found our places at the table that Alan had reserved for us. The weather was gorgeous, and we sat outside in the sunshine with Brandon and Carryn, Alan and Gerri, and Ed and Sue from Angel Louise. The atmosphere was a lot like last year's Christmas celebration in the Jib Room in Marsh Harbor, magnified to about 300 people. The people of St. Mary's were incredible, and we can't thank them enough for sharing their hospitality with so many cruisers who often find themselves away from family and friends over the holidays.

We got an early start Friday morning, dropping Tux off at the kennel before continuing on towards Houston. We took turns driving every two hours, and got an extra hour of sunlight thanks to the change in time zones. By 3:30pm, we realized that we could make it to Houston in one day if we pushed it; we called friends Donna and Steve to see if they minded having house guests a day earlier than planned, and made it to their place by 9:00 that night. We were thoroughly exhausted, but happy to have made it to Houston. 900 miles in 14 hours...priceless!

The weekend was a whirlwind of errands and visits. We had tea with our "Houston parents", Dave and Sheila, made a run down the international food aisle at Fiesta (adobe peppers in chipotle sauce...you know that'll be good in something!), and had sushi with Donna and Steve, Jennifer, and Chris and Katya and their girls at Redfish Saturday night. Sunday we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary over quiche and mimosas with Donna and Steve. Stacy got to see Bridget, her friend from Continental, over coffee at Starbucks, and we managed to get a few more hard-to-find provisions at the monster HEB near Donna and Steve's. (That's still got to be the best grocery store in the world!) We made it to John and Bonnie's that afternoon in time to watch John fill his newest toy - a blown-glass liqueur dispenser from Eastern Europe - and were thrilled that Gary, Deborah, Kraig, and Heidi could all stop by for a visit. We even cracked open a few good bottles of wine...hey, the more we had there, the less we'd have to fit on the boat!

Thanks to John and Bonnie's help, it only took us a half-hour to load the wine into the van Monday morning. We were on the road before 9am, and drove for 10.5 hours before stopping in Marianna, FL, for the night. We managed to arrive in Fernandina shortly after noon, and moved the boat to the fuel dock to load our wine and provisions aboard Pipe. The alternative would've meant a lot of trips back and forth in the dinghy - not an attractive proposition, especially with winds blowing 15-20kts that day! It's a good thing we loaded the wine when we did, because the winds increased to 30kts overnight. Rene was on the bow at 2am adding a second line to the mooring ball while Stacy gunned the engine against the waves. The winds continued to blow throughout the next day, and the 30 degree temps reminded us how much we wanted to get south. Unfortunately we now find ourselves in a waiting game; we still have a few packages that are being sent to the marina here, but they aren't supposed to arrive until Monday (12/6). We had hoped to be in Lake Worth by then, but the weather forecast looks awful for an offshore jump until the middle of next week. In the meantime, we'll enjoy a few of our hot spots in Fernandina: O'Kane's Irish Pub, Indigo Alley, and 29 South. Who knows - we may even run down to St. Augustine via the ICW if we get tired of staying here waiting on weather. We've learned that quite a few of our boating friends are in the Ft. Pierce/Lake Worth/Ft. Lauderdale area waiting for a weather window to cross over the the Bahamas. We're anxious to get down there to join them! Til next time...

Pictures with this Blog chapter:
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Tourist Time Again in Beaufort, SC

2010-11-21T08:53:00.015-05:00

Tuesday, November 9 - Saturday, November 20, 2010
We've finally made it to warmer temperatures! We're back in our favorite southern town, Beaufort, South Carolina. In all, we spent nearly a month here last year and couldn't wait to stop in again.

We left the inlet of Southport, NC, at noon on Tuesday. Brandon on Sol Mate talked to another boat that had had done an outside run from Beaufort, NC ("Bo-fort", as opposed to our "Bew-fort"), the previous night; as predicted, seas were incredibly rough and the boat was beaten up pretty badly. We held our breath as we got into open waters, and were amazed by how calm it was. The winds weren't even strong enough (or in the right direction) to put the sails up, but we'd much rather have to motor than get pounded by 7' seas. We set a couple of waypoints, activated the auto-pilot track function, and curled up in the cockpit for the 40-hour trip down. Buddy-boating with Sol Mate made the trip go much faster, and we had an easy first night in the Atlantic.

The winds picked up early Wednesday morning, and we were able to raise the sails and shut down the engine. Only one problem - we had miscalculated the distance from Southport to Beaufort and were now scheduled to reach the inlet around midnight. Not wanting to maneuver a channel and the 20-mile trip upriver in the dark, we tried to slow Pipe down enough for a sunrise arrival. Easier said than done! We took down the main and still ran 4+ knots on the jib alone. We needed to go 3-3.5kts to get in at daybreak and just couldn't do it. The winds died that evening, and we tried to idle forward in confused seas. It made for a very uncomfortable ride, and we were still doing 3 knots! We finally put the boat in gear as slowly as she would go and arrived at the Port Royal inlet at 2:45am. Sol Mate continued on to the Savannah inlet while we did a 4-mile wide doughnut off the coast. We passed our first channel markers as the sky began to lighten at 6am and finally reached the Beaufort anchorage at 10am. A caravan of boats passed us as we came in, and we had our pick of the anchorage. Oh, and the temperature? Mid-70s!

If you happened to read our blog last year, you already know that Beaufort, SC, is a great place for cruisers. There's a huge anchorage just south of the downtown marina; you can leave your dinghy at a free dock off the marina parking lot, use the marina showers for $1, and use their laundry facilities. The marina is in the heart of downtown, so it's an easy walk to shops, restaurants, beautiful antebellum homes in the historic district, and of course, our favorite bar, Hemingway's. After a much-needed nap, some laundry, and an even more needed hot shower, we walked through town (donned in shorts and capris, no less) and stopped in at Hem's. Cherrie was still bartending (yay!) and warmly welcomed us back. We chatted with her and a few of the locals, and made plans with Brandon and Carryn to meet in Savannah over the weekend. Dinner was a take-out chicken-pesto-lemon pizza and Caesar salad from Panini's Cafe next door, and we were in bed by 8:30pm. Overnight passages take a lot out of us. :-)

Friday we were much more rested and were ready to take on the town. (Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but we certainly felt more lively after an 11-hour sleep!) We picked up our rental car - which ended up being an F-150 4X4 extended cab getting 16mpg...more on that later - and arranged for weekly parking in a lot two blocks from the marina. After a quick grocery run, we headed back to the boat and were stopped en route by our neighbors, Gerri and Alan, on Civil Twilight. We'd recognized their boat name and were trying to figure out where we'd heard of them. It turns out they're friends with both Rick and Linda on Sojourner AND Dave and Lisa on Hullaballoo. As a matter of fact, Gerri and Alan stopped in to see Hullaballoo not long after we'd been there, and Dave and Lisa told them to keep an eye out for us as they headed south. They invited us aboard Civil Twilight for an impromptu happy hour, and we really enjoyed getting to know them. (Author's note: Civil Twilight is an absolutely gorgeous boat, and you can even charter her for your own sailing adventure!) After making plans to meet up in St. Mary's, GA, for the big Thanksgiving shindig, we dinghied over to Hemingways's to watch Sparky Jones perform. Sparky is Cherrie's husband, and this was the first time we'd heard him play. Damn, he's good! Cherrie and Sparky have cruised through the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, and Sparky has played gigs all over the place. Rumor has it they may even head back to the Exumas this winter...fingers crossed for them!

We spent Saturday provisioning and were completely sick of looking at food by the end of the day. What a great excuse to go out for dinner at our favorite Beaufort spot, Emily's! We started off sharing a bowl of their she-crab soup, and dove into a mound of tappas...pancetta-wrapped shrimp with Peaches Foster, lobster ravioli, bacon-wrapped scallops, wild boar sausage, and garlic tenderloin tips. We got all of our old favorites and left absolutely stuffed. Our waiter told us that Emily's owner has recently bought another restaurant on Lady's Island (across the river from Beaufort), and we're sure it'll be as big of a hit as Emily's is.

Sunday we drove down to Savannah to meet up with Carryn and Brandon on Sol Mate. We wandered along the Savannah waterfront, made a provisioning run to Sam's Club, and spent the evening enjoying happy hour with their neighbors, Theresa and George, on Bejaysus. Carryn and Brandon made dinner for us on Sol Mate, and Rene managed to beat the crap out of all of us playing Yahtzee. No fair! We had a terrific weekend with them, and may get to buddy-boat with them again on the jump to Fernandina Beach. Our return trip on Monday included a stop at our local Enterprise office. We've used Enterprise exclusively since leaving TX anytime we needed to rent a car, and have always been pleased with their service. Beaufort was the exception... After waiting for nearly an hour for a pick-up, we were given a truck instead of our intermediate car - a monster pick-up that we absolutely did NOT want ("but it's an upgrade!"). The agent swore we were at the top of his "priority list" for a car, and told us to expect a call back from him Friday afternoon or Saturday morning at the latest. Our call to the agent on Saturday was not returned, nor were our two calls Monday morning. Heck with this - we finally showed up on his doorstep on our way back from Savannah. The agent did not look at all happy to see us, but we finally got a Toyota Corolla with decent gas mileage in time for our big road trip...

Tuesday we were on the road again (poor Tux!), this time to Greenville, SC, to Visit our friends, John & Ginger, from Be Leaving. We hadn't seen them since our Charleston stop on the way north in May, and were excited to catch up and see how life on the hard was treating them. Since we still had the rental car, we also decided to look for a few shops along the way for additional provisioning. Jackpot! We found a two-mile stretch of shops not far from John and Ginger, and managed to make 9 stops in 2 hours...as Rene calls it, "man-shopping". The trunk was full and the credit card was tired, but we felt incredibly productive by the time we reached John and Ginger's house. We spent the afternoon catching up with Ginger, and John joined us from work in time for happy hour. John made an incredible dinner that night, and we all crashed early to be up in time for our trip to Asheville, NC, the following morning.

So what's in Asheville, you might ask? Welcome to Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in America. Biltmore was the dream child of George W. Vanderbilt, who built the house in 1895. Originally sitting on 125,000 acres, the house would contain 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. It remained a private home until 1930, when Biltmore was opened to the public to raise money for maintenance and to bring tourism to the area during the Great Depression. The tour now takes you through about 40 of the mansion's 225 rooms, including the banquet hall (complete with 40' Christmas tree), owners' bedrooms, guest quarters, a 70,000-gallon indoor swimming pool, a 10,000-volume library (containing one of Napoleon Bonaparte's own chess sets), and servants' quarters. We were in for a special treat this time of year, as Biltmore was dressed to the nines for the holidays. Colorful trees, candles, lights, wreaths, and fresh flowers decorated every room. If only we could've taken photos inside... :-) We followed up the house tour with a walk around Antler Hill Village, home of gift shops, restaurants, the Biltmore Legacy exhibit, a winery, and Cedric's Tavern. On the drive home, John and Ginger introduced us to Haus Heidelberg, a German restaurant serving up brats and schnitzels galore. What a fantastic day!

We said goodbye to John and Ginger (following another great breakfast thanks to Chef John) and made our way back to Beaufort on Thursday. After a final provisioning run and rental car return, we hoped to stop by Hemingway's Friday afternoon to say goodbye to Cherrie. The weather had other ideas as the winds piped up to 20+ knots opposite the currents and every boat in the anchorage started sailing on its anchor in different directions. We were within a boat length of our neighbor boat quite a few times, and didn't feel comfortable leaving the boat to go ashore. We finally gave up and settled in for the night (a good thing, since one of us had visions of boat provisions dancing in her head at 6am the next morning). We dug our heels in on Saturday and managed to put away 90% of our provisions. We have even more crap than last year, which makes finding places to put everything a bit of a challenge...and that's BEFORE the remaining 25 boxes of wine even get here!

We're off to Fernandina Beach, FL, in the morning. The weather looks good for an offshore run, so we should be in Fernandina early Monday morning and in plenty of time for Thanksgiving in St. Mary's, GA. Cheers!

Pictures with this Blog chapter:
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Deltaville, VA to Southport, NC

2010-11-08T10:09:00.011-05:00

Sunday, October 31 - Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Trick or treat? TREAT - we're finally heading south! We left Jackson Creek in Deltaville on Halloween morning to make our way to the Norfolk/Portsmouth area. We had anchored in the Hospital Point anchorage on our way north, but Brandon and Carryn from Sol Mate told us about a free city dock in Portsmouth about a mile further south. What a deal! We made phenomenal time motor-sailing at 7-8kts, managed to dodge a cruise ship in the Norfolk channel (those puppies are HUGE), and were in Portsmouth by 2pm. Not wanting to deal with the bridge opening schedule restrictions the following morning, we decided to push on to the locks at Great Bridge and their free docks. We arrived at the lock for the 4:30pm opening and...no!!! There was no room at the inn; every spot on the free docks were full, and the next anchorage was 45 miles away. Thank goodness for the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina. They certainly have a "captive audience" being located just south of the locks, but don't gouge you on the dockage fees. They were completely booked on the outer docks but found us a slip on the inner channel. Going the extra distance to Great Bridge ended up costing us more, but we were awfully happy to be past the five restricted bridges between Portsmouth and our marina.

The next few days involved 40-50 mile hops to secluded anchorages - Lutz Creek on Monday, Alligator River on Tuesday, and Belhaven, NC on Wednesday. We had to forgo a Kill Devil Hills visit with Dave and Camilla (Southern Heat) this time since the winds were pushing all of the water out of the canals. Did we mention that we're now 5'11"? We thought our draft was 5'3" (the CM440 specs say 4'11", and we have 4,000 extra pounds of goodies on board), but we re-measured in Deltaville and had a very rude awakening. Anyway, there was no way we could get into KDH with a 6' draft, so Dave drove to Belhaven to see us. He took us on a driving tour of Belhaven (all three blocks of it), found a new marina and pub (go see Randy at Pungo Creek Marina - he has the only fuel dock in Belhaven), and enjoyed a great dinner at Fish Hook's Cafe. We had a terrific time with Dave and only wished Camilla could've joined us. Hopefully they'll visit us in the islands next year.

After another day-trip and anchorage in Broad Creek off the Neuse River, we made it to Beaufort, NC, on Friday. The Town Creek anchorage was completely packed - there are a lot of boats going south! - but we managed to find a spot to drop the hook. Carryn, Brandon, and Bella on Sol Mate arrived an hour later and anchored in front of us. We all enjoyed a quiet evening and were looking forward to a rest day. Saturday we met up with Dennis and Suzi from Thate Wata, another cruising couple we met in the Abacos last winter. They were gracious enough to drive an hour from New Bern to Beaufort, and we enjoyed an afternoon of lunch and shopping with them. We hosted dinner on Pipe that night for Sol Mate and agreed to buddy-boat down the ditch to Wrightsville Beach. We had initially planned to do an offshore jump from Beaufort, but a Canadian cold front has brought 25-30kt winds and 5-7' seas for the next 3+ days. No thanks! Instead, we decided to get down to Southport inside; hopefully the weather would improve by mid-week for a jump offshore.

We left Beaufort Sunday morning for the 40 mile trip to our anchorage at Camp Lejeune. We came to an abrupt halt three miles later thanks to the 65' Atlantic Beach Bridge that showed only 62' of clearance on its tidal board. We waved good-bye to Sol Mate (damn their 58' mast!) and anchored to wait until the water levels came down. An hour later we edged our way through the bridge. The board showed just under 63', and we heard the dreaded "ting ting ting" of our VHF antenna as it hit the underside of the bridge. Note to self: do NOT go through a bridge unless we have at least 63' of clearance!

Sunday night was spent with 25+ other boats in the Camp Lejeune anchorage. Swing room was limited, and it was cozy to say the least. Brandon and Carryn invited us over for dinner (thanks, guys!), and we had a great evening hanging out together and playing Yahtzee. Monday we took advantage of the time change and were up at 6:30am. It was an easy run to Wrightsville Beach until...WHAM! We were leading a pack of six sailboats north of the Wrightsville Beach Bridge; about a half mile from the bridge, we met up with ten other boats that had been waiting for the 2pm opening (the bridge only opens on the hour, and boat traffic can get pretty busy in front of the bridge). Thanks to 2-3kt currents coursing in front of the bridge, we were all coasting all over the place trying to avoid the shoals and each other. We took an eye off the depth gauge long enough to watch another boat pass us, and suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Rene gunned the engine to no avail. We figured we were on a small ridge of some sort since our depth sounder read that we had a foot of water underneath us. After a couple more attempts to get off, we called for help. As we watched our friends motor through the now-open bascule bridge, we saw a red boat come zooming towards us. Tow Boat US to the rescue! We got a tow-line attached to a bow cleat, and 300HP later, we were loose. It turns out that there was a temporary marker in that exact spot until yesterday; a trawler got caught in the chain holding the marker in place and demolished it. So no more warning for us that the port side had shoaled well into the channel. Oops! Wrightsville Beach is just a bad karma spot for us. The two times we've been here have both resulted in Tow Boat US calls (the first being on our northbound trip when our anchor dragged and we ended up alongside another boat). Oh, well...at least we got free in time for the 3pm opening. There was still enough time to fuel up and get anchored before sunset. We're hoping for a quiet night tonight - we have a long couple of days ahead of us. The weather is finally cooperating enough for us to make an offshore run. We have a small window from Tuesday afternoon to Friday morning where winds and waves remain moderate for a more comfortable crossing. We'll motor the 22 miles from Wrightsville to Southport through the ICW, and should be in the Cape Fear Inlet (south of Southport) by Tuesday afternoon. From there, it's about 200 miles to Port Royal Inlet, the nearest entrance to Beaufort, SC. We're looking forward to spending a week there playing tourist, visiting friends, and taking it easy before the run to St. Mary's, GA, for Thanksgiving. Hopefully our next blog will come to you from warmer temps. Cheers!

Pictures with this Blog chapter:
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