Christmas in Florida, Boxing Day in the Bahamas!!!

Yes, we are alive and dealing with sparse internet access here in the Bahamas! I guess I should back up a little first.
So we made it to West Palm Beach , Florida a couple of days before Christmas. Our day started by checking the weather forecast, hoping for a window to get the 56 miles across the Gulfstream and over to the Bahamas. Nothin' doin', everything was sketchy and out of the north. All my research told me not to try a crossing with a north component to the wind. When the north flowing Gulfstream hits a wind out of the north, it builds steep, square waves making for a very uncomfortable (and sometimes dangerous) crossing. More on how this worked out for us a little later. So we hung out in Palm Beach, playing paparazzi and stalking Tiger Woods yacht.

Ironically his boat is called "Privacy", but even with covers draped over the transom, everyone knew it was his boat.

So with no prospect of a crossing likely, we accepted the fact that Christmas would be spent in the anchorage in Palm Beach. Not that we are expecting any sympathy from anyone, it was still better than being in Port Colborne, but it wasn't where we wanted to be.

Anyway, we had a really nice Christmas morning, finally pulling the gifts out for the kids (not easy to hide this stuff on a 35' boat!!). And much to the kids relief, Santa manged to find us even though we were anchored out.

After all the gifts were opened, we once again listened to the forecast, as well as checking out passageweather.com , and it appeared we might have a small weather window to cross on Boxing Day. We pulled the anchor and moved a few miles north to Peanut Island, the staging anchorage for boats preparing to make the crossing.

The weather window was small, but the forecast called for 7-11kts out of the northwest (good sailing direction) with seas 2' or less. We got the boat ready with a planned departure of 0500hrs on Boxing Day.

Well, let me tell you this, DON'T TRUST NOAA WEATHER FORECASTS!!!!!! We left in the company of our friends Terry, Kim and Brynne on "Clarity", as well as another boat , "Windswept IV". Both of the other boats had made numerous crossings, this was our first.

We left the anchorage in the dark, and according to NOAA the edge of the Gulfstream should have been about 6 miles offshore. If you don't know, the Gulfstream is basically a river that flows north along eastern seaboard, sometimes at speeds up to 4 kts. If you have wind out of the north going against it, you wind up with short, steep, ugly seas. Plus, since the Bahamas (or at least West End, Grand Bahama) is due East, you have to point your boat south to make up for the northerly flow.

Anyway, we got out on the ocean and soon realized the forecast was out to lunch. I make a living working on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. A regular part of my job is checking the weather and estimating sea heights to determine if we can dive the subs or not. We found ourselves in 20-25kts, gusting to 30kts out of the NW. The seas were 8-10' at their worst (our video clip doesn't really give an accurate picture of what we had going on), but thankfully following us. Lisa and I were apprehensive to say the least, figuring if it got really bad we would just turn south and head to Miami. After awhile we realized that both the boat and crew were handling things just fine.We gave Delaney and Mitchel half a Gravol each, but otherwise they just stayed inside reading and playing DS.

10 hours later we arrived in West End, Grand Bahama Island!!!

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=west+end+grand+bahama&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=27.081735,86.396484&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=West+End,+West+Grand+Bahama,+The+Bahamas&t=h&z=13

Grandma Annie treated us to 2 nights at the marina, so we managed to get a few more projects done on the boat, as well as get our first taste of the Bahamas.

After 2 days in West End, we had another 40 miles to get to an anchorage on Great Sale Cay. We had a great day on the water, still getting used to travelling in 6'-8' of water that is cleaner than what we have in our pool!

We met up with a young family from Boston travelling with their 2 little girls, age 2 and 3. They left a few hours before us since they had to take an outside, deepwater route, while we took a shallow water inside route. The anchorage was very windy, but well protected, so we had a good nights sleep in anticipation of our next days travel of 65 miles to Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos.

4 days ago we arrived in Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos. Our days have been filled with checking out the local beaches, the town (New Plymouth) and just hangin' out enjoying the sun and warm weather.

So I have now been sitting on the deck at our local hang-out, Pineapples, and my butt has fallen asleep. I also seem to be missing some pics, so I'll end now and make another post later today. )(Junkanoo was yesterday (New Years Day) and we have some great pics and video).

Or maybe tomorrow........ I dunno, we are working on "Island Time" now!!!

It is definitely "Better in the Bahamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Later,

Mark.

Are We There Yet????

So our last post was over a week ago, out on the foredeck, in the sun, enjoying another remote and beautiful anchorage in North Florida.

Then it hit!

FOG!!!!!!!!!

Trying to maintain 50 miles per day is pretty difficult when you can't leave an anchorage until 1100hrs because you can't see 100m. Our push South was slowing to a crawl. We arrived in Daytona Beach after a late start, stopped to get gas, then had a look over at the oceanfront condos. Fog!!!! The ICW disappeared into the stuff, so we had no choice but to drop the hook and end the day after only moving 21 miles.

As you will see in later pics, Mitchell decided not to get his hair cut. That means Mark gets to continue to live vicariously through his son's full head of hair (Ahhh, I can just barely remember the days when I had hair....).

So we gave into the fact we weren't going any further that day and found ways to stay entertained.

We got an early start the next day, the winds shifted out of the North. The upside is that fog would no longer be a problem. The downside is that it got grey, cold and wet! We had a couple of blustery days, passing by Cape Canaveral with about a 25kt tailwind.

For schoolwork, we had the kids do a little science study project. They were given a number of questions relating to Manatees and dolphins and had to give a presentation at the end of the day. So while we scooted along , they did their research on the internet and put together a presentation.

Along the way we met Chris, Jane and Ava on the 74' three-masted schooner "Liberte" http://www.theliberte.com/

Chris and Jane had her built a few years ago and run day charters out of Annapolis. We all wound up in Vero Beach, Florida and got together for an evening (on their boat, just a "little" more roomy than "Charlotte-Ann). Ava was in dire need of some "kid time" and all 3 kids had a blast just acting like, well, kids!

Anyone that has travelled the ICW would take one look at Liberte and think, "That, on the ICW??". Drawing 7' and with a mast height that "most of the time" gets under bridges, getting this boat south on the inside and still having 3 masts at the end of the day is a real challenge and testament to the skill of the crew. In fact the day we met up in Vero Beach, Chris has driven the boat BACKWARDS under the bridge at Cocoa Beach (he was running with the wind and current and could maintain better steerage this way).He found they were 2" too tall to go under the bridge and as a result lost a masthead light!

Here you will notice Liberte listing to port. Chris and Jane were told that due to the recent winds, they might have a difficult time getting under the next bridge. No problem!! That's why they carry 30 large plastic garbage cans with them. Placing them all on the port side of the main deck, and starting to fill at 0400hrs, by 0800hrs they had enough of a list to lower their mast height by almost 2 feet!!

So we did the last of our provisioning in Vero Beach, as well as an afternoon off the boat. Lisa and Delaney went to see the movie "New Moon", while Mitchell and I went to see "Avatar 3D".

Yesterday we left Vero Beach and had a short 21 miles run to an old favourite of our's, Peck Lake. Here we met up with our old friends from our first trip, Terry, Kim, Brynne (and Syndee the dog) on "Clarity". Brynne flew in for 3 weeks from the U of G, so we are hoping to "buddy Boat" over to the Bahamas.

The winds were cool and from the Northwest which was actually a pretty good direction since the dunes offered protection on the beach. We had a fun afternoon of building sandcastles and shell hunting.
Mitchell spent about 3 hours fighting with a coconut, but after a little help from Terry he finally got the husk off and down to the nut.

Terry made a pasta dinner for us, so we all got together on Clarity for a great meal and discussions over the weather and if we were going to get to the Bahamas before Christmas. After checking the forecast this morning, we decided the conditions were not right for us to cross. Maybe with a bigger boat, or even if we had more experience, but we decided that as much as we would have loved to have made the crossing tonight, attempting it based on such a marginal forecast wouldn't be a good move.

Terry was still debating (they have done the crossing numerous times and have a boat that is a bit better suited to offshore work than our Gemini), but after checking the most recent forecast decided that even for him, the forecast wasn't favourable.

So it now looks as if we will be staying in Palm Beach until Thursday or Friday. The winds are forecasted to shift around to the South at the end of the week, so we have our fingers crossed that we will be crossing either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Until then, we'll just hang-out where we are. Thankfully tomorrow should be the last of the cooler temps, with things getting back up to the mid - high 20C's.

Goodbye Georgia, Hello Newfoundland (we mean Florida!!)

Well , thanks to Gary at Shoreline Marine, Yamaha Parts Department and UPS, "Charlotte-Ann" is once again was a twin-engined catamaran!! With both engines up and running we were able to enjoy our final night at Jekyll Harbour Marina.Despite the cool temps ,everyone gathered up by the pool for a potluck dinner. This was a great way for Lisa and the kids to say goodbye to all the friends they have made over the past 5 weeks. Frank and Lynne, Randy and Diana, Angie, the Shlumps and the crew of Gromit, as well as a few other transcient boaters, all braved the cool temps for food, drinks and a fire.

Frank made some of the best fresh cut fries any of us have ever eaten!! Not bad for a stink-potter, just hurry up and buy that Lagoon!!!

I am happy to report that, despite some strange looks from the locals, I have managed to stick to my plan of not wearing long pants until I have to fly back to Newfoundland in February.

Saturday morning saw us leave Jekyll Island under cold, grey skies. The best part was the warm send-off we got from all the other boaters. Here we have Delaney and Mitchell surrounded by a bunch of other "Boat Kids" (and Charlie) . All these kids are currently living aboard, representing Toronto (Gromit), Colorado (Amazing Grace 2), and California (Las Sirenas).

It's really great seeing how quickly the kids bond , the excitement they show when they hear other kids are arriving. Must have something to do with their parents dragging them away from "normal life", sticking them on a boat and constantly moving them around. Geez, that doesn't sound very good, but really, they all seem to love the "Crusing Life". And if they don't, well, that's why deep bilges were designed ;-).

So about 7 hours after leaving Georgia we arrived in sunny Florida!!!!!

Actually, we arrived to rain, 11 degrees Celcius and the aroma of a pulp mill!! Not exactly postcard Florida. Add to that the fact you can drive to Florida from Port Colborne in about 24 hours. We were just arriving after leaving home at the end of June!!!!

We tucked into a small creek, set the anchor, had a nice dinner and watched "A Christmas Story" (You''ll shoot your eye out!!!).

Today we woke to thick fog, but the wind had shifted to the southwest to temps had risen about 15C. It slowly burned off, and by 09oohrs we were underway.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times you pass an inlet, it is possible to travel 8 hours continuously going against the current!! We are shooting for 50- mile days, but only managed 40. The trade-off was a warm and sunny day, capped off with a picturesque anchorage.

So things are going great. We are all having a terrific time, meeting great people and treasuring our time together as a family.

We don't want to jinx ourselves, but with a little luck we will be in position by next weekend to cross to the Bahamas.

Take care,

The Crew of "Why does the port bilge keep filling with freshwater!?!?!?"

M, L, D and M

Still in Georgia!!!!

Just a short entry here. I got back to Lisa and the kids last Friday. Our plan was to get going on Tuesday, but unfortunately one of our engines had different plans!!

Yesterday we pulled the engine off and sent it to a local Yamaha dealer. Looks as if we need a new ignition coil, a warranty issue, so we are here for a couple more days.

Today we took the time to put up our solar-powered Christmas Lights. We'd show you how they look at night, but not long after we hung them, the skies clouded over and we had rain and 38kts of wind. It will be clearer and cooler tomorrow, so hopefully they will get a good charge.

So apart from troubleshooting the engine, loading up on groceries, trips to West Marine and getting a few other boat projects done, we are just hanging out and waiting to get our engine back so we can start moving south again.

Fingers crossed we get going on Friday, hopefully in Palm Beach by the end of next week, waiting for a weather window to get across to the Bahamas!!

Later,

Mark, Lisa, Delaney and Mitchell