Bahamas Bound

2006 - 2007

We've arrived in an area where we can slow down a bit and smell the roses. Swimming and fishing are now options, along with boat maintenance to renew Another Adventure's appearance.

You can follow the current leg of our journey on this page as you did with the Loop Trip. We plan to post and update at least weekly... if the god of internet communications sees fit to permit regular connections. Every couple of weeks we'll move the older portions of the log to secondary pages, keeping this page somewhat shorter.

Updated on 12/19/2006

12/4/06 - Another sunrise at dawn. Last night as we sat in the cockpit in the dark, caressed by balmy zephyrs having a nightcap we marveled at the number of unoccupied condos. We counted a found less than 20% had lights on in the early evening. There may be enough vacant housing in the US to house all the homeless - Scary thought. I also added a page under "Pleasure" on rbhammer.com that has a listing of my published articles (brag page). We headed south for Miami, 35 miles. Sampatecho had to stop at Port Everglades to install a SkyMate satellite transmitter on a client's boat. We continued on to Key Biscayne and No Name harbor. We found the harbor full, so we anchored off shore for the night under the shelter of Key Biscayne. The winds are piping up to 20 knots as a cold front approaches... shouldn't be a big change in temperature - 70's maybe. 12/5/06 - I changed the engine oil this morning - you get good at this task because you get to do it so often on a trip like this. Then we fired the diesel up and headed to Coconut Grove, or Miami, and the anchorage off Dinner Key Marina where we dropped our hook. It was a maintenance day for me, sanding teak, revising the controls on the the dinghy hoist and getting it ready for the addition of a sheave to double the hoist's lifting capacity. Met the folks from a trawler anchored next to us, a couple, Roger and Darlene from Eagle Harbor, MI. They were headed to Ft Meyer for the day and saw Appleton, WI on our stern. Roger asked if I'd brought my deer rifle and would I keep an eye on their boat for the day (no & yes). Our solar and wind generation capabilities are proving themselves right now. We typically are 40 to 70 amp hours down when we wake up in the morning. If we run the engine at all during the day by dusk we are usually shedding amps as we have no place to store them. It's going to be interesting to see how this works out when we don't run the engine at all (though we'd loose our hot water). Bradd & Maeve are sailing down from Ft. Lauderdale so we told them we'd have supper ready when they arrived. There's a cold front passing through so its windy (15 knots) and misting... we had a better day for making the trip. 12/6/06 - The cold front came in last night - so they tell us. It's windy and partly cloudy but certainly not cool. This morning we successfully went grocery shopping and unsuccessfully to West Marine. The staff at the latter was so busy with each other they couldn't find time to help... maybe next port. The anchorage at Dinner Key is relatively unprotected so we've had a little bouncing - just enough to remind us we're on water. Most of the old derelict boats that we associate with this anchorage are gone - hurricanes piled them somewhere. The city is trying to re-establish the mangroves as they are critical to holding the cays in place that protect the marina. There are only about a dozen eyesores left. That's about a dozen too many as it is used to justify restrictions on transient anchoring. 12/7/06 - Daughter Amy's Birthday today! I woke to the sound of Ruth's phone. Our alarm hadn't gone off and her cab was calling from the marina - looking for her. We got ready in record time and took the dinghy to shore where the cab was waiting. Only time for a hug and kiss and Ruthie was on her way home. Business to be done and a house to be cared for. Buddy and I will push on to Marathon and the Keys in preparation for Ruth's next visit in January. We met Echo & her fiancé Leo last night. A very neat couple! They were down to visit Bradd and Maeve - joining them for the trip to Marathon. About 8am we headed south, motor sailing, then sailing until we pulled in below Rodriguez Key for the night. Not our first choice for an anchorage but they are talking 20-25 knot winds tonight and the Key will shelter us. Anchored in 7 feet of water... fortunately its low tide. 12/8/06 - Another 8am push south. The winds were 20-25 as forecast but our anchorage had been quiet all night. Had supper on Sampatecho with a chance to get to know Leo and Echo better... very neat young couple! We sailed off our anchors and headed south. Sailing solo I elected to use just the headsail so Sampatecho had better boat speed - hey, I'm in no hurry. We were both anchored in Boot Key (Marathon) by 3pm. At least I thought I was anchored. Because of the high winds Leo had transferred aboard in the channel to help me anchor. The anchorage was crowded but we found a hole at the north end. Bradd's outboard wouldn't start so I ran Leo into the Marina to visit his dad. I took advantage of the trip to stop at West Marine for some items I needed to finish the dinghy hoist. Another Adventure made a run for freedom. When she bumped Sampatecho headed for who knows where Echo dove in the water and grabbed the anchor chain and their swim ladder. Another boated got a line to Maeve and they tied AA off their stern while phoning Bradd and I to get back and help. Bradd and I tried to re-anchor her 3 times - no luck - the bottom was too hard. We moved about a mile to the south end of the anchorage before we found another spot big enough. Had to dodge a few other run-aways enroute. By dark we were again anchored... solidly this time. 12/9/06 - Not a good sleeping night - worried about the anchor breaking loose. That and the wind was so strong it blew a breaker causing the controller for the wind generator to smoke. I was up 4 times check everything. At dawn I just stayed up, had breakfast and went to work on the boat. Got the dinghy lift done except for locking devices in the up position. Complete a number of other little projects while the wind screamed outside. With the regulator out on the wind generator I had power to burn when the solar kicked in. Sewed, ran the microwave, charged batteries, anything I could think of to burn electricity to prevent a battery overcharge. Went to Sampatecho to discuss a couple of changes in my wiring to prevent another controller problem... stayed for supper. Thanked Echo again for saving our home. Expected to see her taller after being stretched between the two boats. She assures me that was not the case. 12/10/06 - Sunday dawned partly cloudy and windy. Buddy is talking up a storm - he knows things I hadn't heard before. I wonder what triggers these streaks, but have to admit it's nice to heard Ruth's "Good morning, good morning, goood morrrnnniiing!" while I'm having my wake-up cup of joe. I'm 12th on the waiting list for a mooring. If the weather breaks and a group heads for the Bahamas I should get a ball. If not I'll have to celebrate Christmas away from Ruth for our first time. There's no way we can leave the boat unoccupied at anchor - all it takes is a strong wind change and AA could be up on the rocks. Bradd, Maeve and Echo came over to see Buddy. Echo had heard him when she was saving AA but didn't have a chance to meet him. Buddy would clown around with her, lower shot right, but was very protective of Bradd. If Echo came too close Buddy would take the offense. Contrary to my concerns Echo isn't 3" taller after being stretched between the two boats. We can't thank her enough for catching the boat. Normally one of us would stay aboard after we were newly anchored. Traveling alone I left the boat untended to take Leo to the marina and stop in at West Marine. Set a second anchor with Bradd's help anticipating a wind change in a couple of days. I think I'll have to reset it tomorrow... I suspect it isn't holding. Tough bottom here, its seems to be a white marl. 12/11/06 - Time for domestic chores: schedule a pump-out (tomorrow), do laundry, figure out how to get fresh water (down to a couple of gallons) and work on boat maintenance. Got two coats of acrylic finish over the teak oil and spent 4 hours doing six loads of wash. WOW! Broke the cruisers code -  I got more than one thing done today! This evening I went to dinner on Sampatecho with Bradd & Maeve. I brought the appetizers - shrimp cocktails and wine while Maeve did the dinner. What a deal! Had a great evening. Winds are still out of the north at15-20 knots. The harbormaster says it's unlikely that a mooring will open up before Christmas - looks like fate has me here for the holiday. Bummer! 12/12/06 - Another partly cloudy windy day. Cruising Solutions delivered a new wind regulator last night so I'd better get it wired in today. Took until 2pm but everything is working well and I've corrected the original wiring error. Got a couple more layers of acrylic on the teak so that project is pretty well under control. I moved AA to the north end of the harbor and got her anchored securely with Bradd's help. The wind is still in the 14-20 knot range. I'm now about 200 feet from Sampatecho. Leo and Echo came over to spend some time with Buddy without Bradd's influence. Buddy talked a little and was more interested in Echo than he was aggressive. Had dinner with Bradd, Maeve, Echo and Leo - a nice evening. 12/13/06 - Listened to the cruiser's net on vhf 68 this morning. Every day at 9am they have a short net where questions are answered, harbor news passed on along with items of interest to the harbor community. Because anchoring is so difficult and space to anchor is hard to find I'm filling the water tanks 5 gallons at a time. Each time I go ashore I buy 5 gallons for $0.25 and bring it back with me. It should keep ahead of my usage. In keeping with the cruiser's one thing a day I cycled to NAPA and West Marine today, 3 1/2 hour circuit for parts to complete the work I started in Sturgeon Bay. Tonight we are taking a dinghy ride to hear Eric Stone perform at Burdine's. It should be a fun time. For the non-sailors Eric is kind of a Jimmy Buffet knock-off though he has his own sound - they sing about the same subjects. 12/14/06 - Quiet day. I polished stainless steel and cleaned the ICW stain off the sides of the hull (the tannic acid from surrounding trees stains the boat in combination with lime). AA is starting to look like her former self. I went ashore to trade books in the marina exchange library and to pick up another 5 gallons of water. I'm still trying to figure a way to leave the boat securely somewhere for the Christmas Holiday. A couple of the boats in the harbor are decorated for the Holidays. Very pretty! The photo doesn't do it justice! 12/15/06 - It poured last night. Very little lightning but inches of rain. Nice that I'd put the inflatable in the hoist as all the water drained out. The boat got a great fresh water rinse... sorely needed. Today it's in the mid-80's, cloudy and high humidity. The weatherman is calling for a 75% chance of rain... probably tonight again though it has sprinkled a few time during the day. Spent the day on boat projects, tying up the wiring from my various arch projects - another thing off the must do list. The acrylic I put on the teak appears to turn white every time it rains. I'll have to talk to Amazon and find out what's going on. At this point I would not recommend the stuff to anyone. If I have to strip it off and use something else I may have an article.

Boca Raton from the Atlantic... Fort Lauderdale from the Atlantic... look familiar? Dawn over Biscayne Bay from Dinner Key Boot Key Harbor - open area is the channel Marathon shore of harbor - viewed from AA Echo meets Buddy... (she saved AA) Buddy tries to check Echo out - what's she doing? Christmas decorations sailing style

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