Last nights visitor

Thur Jan 24 11:30 AM Well yesterday was a bummer. We decided to wait till today to sail over to Nassau and check in for free...well they still get their 300 bucks, but not the $100 to tie up to the dock for 20 min. The forward head decided to stop up..I tried the usual..plunger etc, then decided that it might be something more serious. So I started to take things apart....sometimes I think the engineer that designed these things should have to take their designs apart and put them back together 100 times before they can sell even 1 of them...bet things would be better designed. Any way...upon taking the pump apart I find the hose(1 1/2 inch diameter about 5 ft long is completely closed up with what looks like and feels like concrete. Somehow I have to clean this hose out before the damn head will work again. So I start with the usual,, a coat hanger...maybe get 3-4 inches dug out..then used vise-grips to slightly squeeze the hose to break up the concrete...then rig up some small diameter hose to the fresh water pump. With this I can flush out some of the pieces as I break them up...damn where is the Home Depot when you need one. A pipe snake would be real handy right now. ...back to the small diameter hose with a brass fitting on the end. Ram this down 20-30 times then flush with the water...slow going about 1/2 inch each time...in need of something stiffer... I had just replaced one of my lifelines. Just what I needed, so we removed the lifeline and I used that to break up the stuff...now getting an inch + each time. By about 3:30...been at this for 3 1/2 hrs already..I break through. Pump water through and all is fine...just have to put everything back together and by 4 pm we disinfect the boat both take showers and declare it now 5 o'clock somewhere. Happy Hour although my back was not too happy were still downloading on Graboid...watched a few NCIS then our guest arrived..Joyce was having fun photographing him....guess he wanted to email someone as he was sitting on my computer.
We were up to a dead calm morning...full moon and CLEAR water...I will try and fix Joyce's pi later, but notice you can see the bottom as well as the reflection. W checked the weather and decided to wait for wind tomorrow to go to Nassau...I sent off for so long term weather files...wow..there was a window where the wind was from the north for several days..maybe we should make the run east and head for St Thomas....downloaded a few more files...damn...lets go for it. Understand St Thomas and the rest of the islands are 4-5 hundred miles east of us. The winds this time of year are from the east. Sailboats find it hard to go east this time of year, so when one can...make the best of it and go. Now Joyce was going to miss some dive spots, but we can still stop here on the way back...and yes I guess we will miss a few lobster dinners. We are blogging sending a few emails and will leave this afternoon...should take us about 6 days almost 900 miles...with a day or so of no wind...So the blog will be dormant till we get to the Virgins.

Chub Cay

Wednesday January 23rd, 2008

Yesterday we had a wonderful - albeit bumpy at first sail – from the non-inhabited island we ducked behind to let the wind blow. Motoring out of the narrow inlet was a bit interesting…especially when a huge breaker stopped the Lady H in her tracks (0 sog – speed over ground) and then turned her sideways for what seemed like too long…but in reality wasn’t…as Paul maneuvered her right back to where she should be…and once out of the inlet we were able to sail to where we now sit….Chub Cay. We were going to check in here but the Marina wants $100.00 extra so we are staying here on the boat…not going ashore…and getting some chores done. New ones…not on the “list”…but ones that come up every now and again with a fully modernized boat!!!

Frozen Cay

Monday Jan 21 11:15 am.. Now that was a rolly night. We stayed up and watched our newly downloaded movies and TV programs…Joyce was falling asleep so we finished it this AM. .Wind was up in the 25 knot range during the night. At one point the tide which runs at 1-2 knots brought us perpendicular to the waves and we rolled for 4-5 hrs. A bottle of rotten French rum (they make the worst tasting rum) made it to the galley floor…damn thing didn’t even break. We have added anis star spice to the stuff to see if we can make it into Sambucca or at least drinkable. Wind now at 30 plus…our new Rocna anchor is doing its thing trying to dig itself to China. We had a hard time getting it up back in Ft Lauderdale…guess that is a better alternative then dragging. It is a very impressive anchor. It set with a hard jerk yesterday when we dropped it. I have the snubber all the way out..40+ ft…it stretches like a rubber band in this wind…also have a back up in case this one snaps. Don’t want all that force ripping the windlass out of the deck. We are anchored in about 12 ft with about 100 ft of chain…..So it’s a real nasty day…we are going to watch movies and wait out the storm all by our selves behind this little island. What should we watch next?
Oh…Paul is so funny…we really do have some cute movies to watch though! I guess his “graboid” was a good thing! So, anyway, when Paul wanted to tie the spare anchor (the Buelle) down better while we were crossing the stream…he was insistent that he do it…in fact I had to raise my voice a little before he finally conceded. The seas were confused because of the winds shifting so we were having a bit of a bumpy ride waves hitting the side and coming over the bow. But here was my thinking…I have better balance than he does…if he starts the knot I can tie it off…if I fall overboard I can swim longer than he can and he can maneuver the boat to get me…AND most important…I was saving myself the stress of watching him up on the bow with waves hitting him AND if he were to fall overboard the stress of maneuvering the boat to get him!!! Also…just for a moment I got to feel like I was really out at sea…you know like the guys catching Alaska crab on the show “World’s Deadliest Catch” albeit on a much much much smaller scale!!!

Bahamas

Sunday Jan 20 11:12 AM. Greetings from the Bahamas. We sailed out of Ft Lauderdale yesterday 10AM. Had a fast crossing of the Gulf Stream arriving off the Bahamas around sunset. Just before dark I noticed my spare anchor had shifted on the crossing…we did bury the bow into numerous waves. Sent Joyce forward to tie it down. She was soaked when she came back, sent her down for a hot shower and some dry clothes.




99% of the time I want to go faster , but in this case I had planned the passage at 6 knots, enough time to cross the Stream before the big cold front blew through and time for us to make the turn south along the Bahamas Bank (An extremely shallow area between the islands where the water depth averages 8-9 ft. Remember we draw 7 ft. a tall starfish could be a bump on the bottom. I did not want to cross that at night or in 25 kts) We were doing 8-9 kts in 25 knts..damn…we were going to arrive around 5 am if we didn’t slow down. Seems the Lady had other thoughts. Every time I reduced sail the damn boat would go faster. We took the longer route, same as the 25 + cruise ships (cattle boats) that passed us during the night. They leave Lauderdale and Miami around 7 pm and we start seeing them from 10 pm on…half coming in for a new herd of cattle and the other half with a new group of bovine ready for the fattening.(FOOD SERVICE 24 HRS A DAY) By the time the boats get to St Thomas the waterline goes up 6 inches when they all get off to spend their money on inflated duty free goods. If you don’t think the American public is obese then sit in St Thomas and watch them roll down the narrow streets…Any way…I had not slept well Fri night…damn kidney stone again…so Joyce tried to accommodate me by letting ,me get some rest early…too damn bumpy…I should have tried the saloon. (The motion in the fore and aft cabin is well more vigorous than in the center. I have been thrown on the floor more than once) so we took turns at the wheel watching the Cattle boat parade. They light up like a small city. I took the wheel about 4:30 as the last cruise ships passed. We could see the lightning in the clouds as the front approached. Joyce crashed and I reefed everything down for the blow. We made the turn about 5am..Still no front. After the turn the seas were calm in 15 kts. Joyce had a nice sail while I grabbed some sleep. I got up about 6:30…you could see the black wall behind us...the wind shifted 120 degrees in 10 min and the temp dropped 20 deg. Wind piped up to 20-25..back up to 8+ kts….started to rain hard…we decided to duck in behind on of small islands. We were cruising along the Berry Islands. ..Frozen Cay...Seems the Bahamas are broken into several groups..kind of like counties. The Berry’s are small and for the most part uninhabited except for the few under development with BIG US money.




Chub Cay where we will check in tomorrow is big bucks. You can see Arnold Palmer’s little 120 ft boat “The Bear” moored in its $450,000 slip….Well lunch time..then an afternoon of rest and movies we downloaded off of Graboid….

We escape tomorrow....

Friday Jan 18 8:49 PM....Well we are all provisioned up, fueled up, batteried up and ready to go. As the political season heats up...This Capt must escape the screech of Hillary, 8 yrs of Bill was enough...so we leave tomorrow AM for the Bahamas.By the way...if the Bitch wins...the Lady will not come back, There is a weather window of about 20 hrs before the big winter storm whacking you people up north hits us down here. We are expecting N -NE winds in the 30 kt range....not a pretty thing out in the Gulf Stream. We will do an overnight and duck in Sunday behind a key for the blow. Joyce has the water line down with the most completely provisioned boat in the Caribbean. extra, extra green olives, Fritoes, pickles, plenty of Lamb, chicken and good old American beef. Freezers are packed to the max...barely enough room for the all important ice for the Happy Hour, but we saved some.........It has been a busy 3-4 days..now looking for a nice sail and some slow "Island Time " .About the time we got the dink up on the deck and things stowed the local water cop came by to kick us out. There is a 1 day limit here in Ft lauderdale...I started to tell him that I was waiting for a safe weather window....and I as the Capt will decide when I leave....big war down here with the cruisers....but hell we are ready to go anyway...So we are out with the tide...might be a few days before we can get online...J&P