2008 Cruising
2/16 to 2/29/2008
This is our log for 2008; the 2007 East Coast and other voyages are now in Prior Voyages.
We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!
Updated on 03/08/2008
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2/16/08 - Another sunny morning... NE winds. Looks like a project day on Ariel. We are installing an automatic switch on their #2 bilge pump and an audible high water alarm. They don't want to walk into the cabin and find water on the floor again. Frustrating day. Got the switch on the pump and it works okay, but the alarm isn't working. We had bread-boarded a solution and it worked. After we installed it and it didn't. Missed something along the way and will have to rethink it Sunday. Received a call from John & Nell - they had just arrived on Our Way and anchored outside the harbor for the night. Looking forward to seeing them tomorrow. We joined Bob & Paula for dinner on Great Catsby, Rich & Carol Wellman's beautiful 42' catamaran. Great spaghetti and good conversation! 2/17/08 - Short strong showers washed over AA around 6am, causing me to jump awake and close overhead hatches. Couldn't get back to sleep so I read. Ruth and I took the dinghy to Ariel. While Ruth and Laureen went grocery shopping Miles and I again bread-boarded the alarm system - it worked. Then we installed it after learning I'd missed a pair of wires that first time I documented our test layout. With the additional pair of leads we have a working system. Now Ariel is protected by two bilge pumps, each on it's own float valve. One serves as the primary pump - it is designed for low volume and maintains the bilge at about 1/2" of water. The second float is set higher and starts the big pump if the sump has more than 2 1/2" of water. At the same time the second pump starts an electronic water sensor sets off the alarm. Nice arrangement, even if both floats fail the electronic sensor warns the crew. We had John, Nell, Laureen and Miles aboard AA for a sundown drink. It was interesting with the various conversations about boats, destinations, favorite harbors and adventures. 2/18/08 - I spent a little while with John inspecting the wiring on his two wind generators. He had the new shut-off switches and meters wired correctly but one unit was not charging. It is his rebuild unit and he suspects it. I think the connection at the unit may not be good. He decided to put that on his do at a dock list. Ariel changed marinas... they'd been moved from slip to slip daily and decided to go somewhere where they could stay in one slip until they left. Our view changes daily also as the wind changes direction but it takes no effort on our part. We all toured the Turtle Hospital during the afternoon. They rescue, rehab and release sea turtles. At the time of our tour they had 30 turtles under their care. The smallest were recent hatchlings and the largest was 300 lbs. This is a very sophisticated operation. They have a beautifully equipped lab with x-ray and laser surgery - very interesting. Most of their patients are endangered and threatened species. The biggest threat to sea turtles today is the loss of beaches for laying their eggs. Too many seawalls and condos going up. 2/19/08 - A sudden 7am downpour jump started us this morning as we had all sorts of overhead hatches open. After running around dogging them down I was fully awake. Ruthie crawled back into bed. I went to work on the computer. We are watching a forecast weather window - planning to go to Rodriquez Key the 22nd and crossing the 23rd... about the same time and place as last year. I took my folding bike to shore, set it up and went off gathering. One would think AA finished by now - not the case. I needed parts to upgrade our diesel filtering system and to rewire the electrical panel that isolates our solar and wind generating. I covered about 10 miles collecting pieces to build panels and install a new filter. Along the way I found a source of food for Buddy where the shop had tons of Parrots and other birds and the workers stocked shelves with birds on their shoulders. Neat! At 4 we joined Miles and Laureen on Our Way. John and Nell provided a chart talk on the Bahamas, sharing information they'd learned during their twenty-some trips their. 2/20/08 - The wind continues to blow out of the North. We are watching the forecasts, planning on crossing this weekend. Fourth Watch is out of the boatyard $1,700.00 later. Yanmar refuses to honor their warranty as Bob didn't have a tech inspect his installation - forget the facts that nothing done during installation could have caused the fuel pump to leak into the crankcase and the fact that all recommended servicing has been done by certified Yanmar techs. This is not characteristic of the Yanmar we know. Spent most of the day rewiring the new switch panel for the solar and wind generators. This was precipitated by irregular performance from the breakers in the old panel and a corrected diagram from the wind generator folks on how to wire in a shut-down. All done now, looks good - works great! We went to the "Meet and Greet" tonight, it was a tribute to Roy & Bev, owners of the Overseas Lounge, rumored to be closing because of lease issues with the property owner. The boating community lost a pair of good friends. We sent them off to the echo of cannon fire and a chorus of conchs. 2/21/08 - Must be getting close to time to leave... it's raining like there'll be no tomorrow... animals are lining up in pairs. The rain was soon over and we were hard at work provisioning and getting the last details out of the way. Ruth was working, having problems getting e-mails sent. There seemed to be server problems or a denial of service attack going on at Yahoo causing long periods where we could receive but not send e-mail. Frustrating!!!!! I opened an account with another provider for Ruth only to learn that our antique software won't let me configure an Outlook pick-up for her. At least she can send on the new connection... just needs to log in there to receive rather than in our normal system. Got to be an easier way! Back to school Barry. 2/22/08 - I started the day by pulling out our original diesel filter. While it had served us well since day one, finding filter elements for it always led to having to order them. I wanted a readily available unit and chose to install a Racor. I was thrilled to find the both units used hose barbs to connect - kewl. I was not pleased to find the old unit was bolted through a bulkhead and that I had to remove most of the aft cabin decking to reach the heads of the bolts. By noon the engine was running on the new filter. After lunch I sewed up a couple of new fender covers for Fourth Watch. Their fenders were exhibiting plasticizer migration (they were very sticky) and needed to be bagged. After the project the crews of Our Way, Ariel, AA and Fourth Watch went to Porky's for dinner. It was time to say good bye for now to Bob and Paula. They had elected to stay in Florida and explore this new to them area. For the immediate few days they will be entertaining their son and daughter-in-law. John and Nell were planning on meeting us later in the Abaco Islands. Fair winds and smooth seas Fourth Watch... the ocean will seem bare without you behind us! 2/23/08 - We hoisted anchor at 5:30am, learning that our bow lights would not work. We must have broken a wire when we ran the wash down hose aft. I drilled a hole in the step at the bow and inserted the combination bow light from the dinghy. Now we have a quick way to provide back-up lighting. AA and Ariel slowly threaded through the reef marking the edge of the continental shelf. We found a good path and never saw less than 10' of water. By 7:30 we had our sails up and were motor-sailing in 10-13 knots of wind... doing 8 - 10 knots over the bottom. The 1-3' waves were quartering off our bow - an almost ideal condition for crossing. Our SkyMate had nailed the forecast. Enroute we saw 5 ships early in the day... the closest about 3 miles away. We also saw thousands of jellyfish - Portuguese Man-O-Wars. It seem like there was one on the tip of every wavelet. Traveling with Ariel gave us the opportunity to watch the flock(?) of flying fish that proceeded them. The distance some of these fish fly and their maneuverability is amazing - it's like watch barn swallows. By 2:30pm we were crossing onto the Bahamas bank, planning on running until 4pm to get far enough on the bank to loose the ocean swells. The water is so clear we could easily see bottom at 65 feet. Ariel picked up a couple of old ropes in her prop shaft so Miles had to anchor and dislodge them. It went quickly. While we waited we set up the gennaker on AA. When Ariel was ready to go we hoisted the gennaker sock, releasing the deep red 1120 square foot sail. Ruth quickly trimmed it and we were soon doing 5.5 knots over the bottom. Miles took the opportunity to photograph us naked. Clarify that one, the photographer was naked, not us. Yewwh! More than we wanted to know. Right Ruth? Ruth... Ruth... By 5 we anchored and I picked up Miles & Laureen for a sundowner, welcoming them to the Bahamas. 2/24/08 - Sunrise on the Bahamas Bank, no land in sight in any direction... the only sign of life was Ariel bobbing next to us. I was up at 7, made coffee and obtained a SkyMate weather forecast for the waters off Nassau. Ruth navigated while I updated the website though publishing it to the internet will be sporadic at best for the next 6 weeks. I'll seen a notice to the follower list when I do publish. Next I troubleshot the running lights. Turned out the problem was saltwater had entered a terminal block I didn't know existed in the bow. After I removed and cleaned all the contacts the navigation lights worked perfectly. I moved the terminal so it wouldn't be exposed again. You learn a little more everyday. One thing about salt water, once something gets wet it stays wet. Not like fresh water that evaporates leaving a dry surface. On the debit side of the ledger, our WIFI card won't boot. We haven't used it since Maine as the Sprint card has been so reliable... guess the WIFI was feeling neglected. We'll have to replace it in Nassau so we have some communication in the Bahamas, I came topside to find Ruth counting conch and starfish on the bottom as we ran along in 17 feet of water. Depth is so constant here you want to tap on the depth sounder to see if it is working. Miles is drinking seawater... fired up his watermaker and it worked. As he notes that's one thing in a row on the boat that did what it was supposed to do when started. Ruthie caught a baby Barracuda, about 1" long. Reputedly good eating, but he only looked like a meal for one and we weren't betting on another... so he joined our catch and release program - lucky guy. We arrived at Chub Cay about 4pm. AA anchored and Ariel went in to clear customs and take a slip so they could run their air conditioning. They will need it in the harbor - we have a nice breeze in the anchorage. All of the slips in this $60 mil project are reportedly privately owned and when empty are available to transients. To Ruth and I the project looked little changed since last year... the same partially finished houses, 60-70% empty slips, closed shops and few people. The workers cottages looked less occupied than last year, not heavy equipment on site, and there were no roosters walking the streets. Its kinda sad... but then, it was Sunday and not much happens here on the Sabbath (don't know where they hide the heavy equipment though). We need to clear customs in Nassau because Buddy's paperwork is lost in the US/Bahamas mail. Eight days after mailing our priority mail has not arrived at customs. It will - some day... what do you expect from governments for $49.00. service? Too much verbiage today... this is turning into a novel. Arrggghh! 2/25/07 - Off to Nassau, 8:30 departure for a 6 hour run. We had a great night at anchor with an 8-10 knot wind right down the hatches - makes for good sleeping and no bugs! The wind was dead behind us so it was a day of motoring in 1-3 foot swells. Nice ride though a little rolly... felt like a powerboat. The Bahamas exhibit many contrasts. Yesterday we sailed most of the day in 15-17 feet of water. Today we are in 7,000 to 10,000. We saw a pod of over a dozen dolphins enroute. When we approach Nassau we called harbor control for clearance to enter, receiving permission to do so as soon as a cruise ship exited. Ariel arranged for a slip at Atlantis (guess the island wasn't lost after all). We took a slip at Harbor Club to clear customs, do wash and take on water. We also needed a WIFI fix, hence this posting. Customs was complicated by the fact that in spite of our expensive mailing of Buddy's Import Permit, it never arrived. Let's hear it for the postal service. Next time it's UPS. Anyway, we had the same agent we had last time and he remembered us and Buddy. Whew. Small problem arose with immigration. Ruth's passport expired the 8th. No problem for the Bahamas but she can't return to the USA. Whoopsie! I'm okay, mine expires in 2010... actually not that far off. I'll have to renew it so I can visit her in the Bahamas. Wild night on the town - we did our wash! WIFI is kind of iffy - we have to take the computer on deck to get a signal. Hey, it works. 105 e-mails in our in box... most of it useless. Still working on getting that crap blocked. 2/26/08 - Another beautiful morning! Sunny, 70's, light winds with a few clouds drifting across the sky. Buddy heard us stirring and softly sang his good morning routine, first looking for Barry, then for Ruth. Gets you up with a smile. Reading the local papers we find that the Bahamas, like the States, are in a recession. It makes for exciting reading in that politics here are more like at a city level than US national... issues are much closer to home and the writers are great at satire. A morning and $100 later Ruth has a special 1 year passport. When she gets stateside she needs to go get a regular one good for another 10 years. Darn, I was looking forward to visiting her in the Bahamas. We have wifi until tomorrow noon. Then it may be a while before we get to another port with this service. Cell phones are also useless as Batelco uses a different system than that of US providers. 2/27/08 - Woke up to a surprise. We were robbed while we slept last night. My shorts were in the main salon. When I picked them up I noticed that my Wave (a utility tool) was not on my belt. I found it under my t-shirt. Then I noticed my small credit card wallet was in the pocket where I keep my money clip and the money clip was gone. Ruth asked if I'd closed the screen door last night. Yes. Well it was open in the middle of the night when she got up to use the head. Quickest $300+ I've spent. At least they left our credit cards, cell phones and digital camera that were on the Nav Station. Scary part - what if Ruth had awoken and spooked him? I guess it's time to figure out a security alarm for the screen door! The boat next to us was also robbed - $100 was stolen from the cabin THEY WERE SLEEPING IN and a cell phone with a Batelco sim card. Gutsy little crook. Made contact with Ariel, they haven't gotten off the resort property - having too much fun. They will likely stay there through the end of the week. We're going to go out and explore some local islands. Cold front came through last night. We had found a cozy spot in the Narrows east of Paradise Island. Don't know how high the wind got as our unit quits reading at about 22. Looking at the spin-up on our wind generator I'd guess we saw at least high 30's. No problems as our anchor was well set. 2/28/08 - Beautiful sunny morning. Wind meter says 10 knots, slight chop in our anchorage. Buddy seems himself today. Yesterday we thought he'd sprained something when a book fell and scared him... squawked like a banshee. We'll keep an eye on him today to see how he's fairing. We were boarded this morning by the Royal Bahamas Defense Forces... a routine check by a great crew. Turns out one of them was a Vikings fan who has a good friend that is a Packer fan. They are planning a trip to WI to see a Viking/Packer game together. Had all kinds of questions about travel in our area and whether Green Bay or Minneapolis would be a better stadium - I set them straight.. Oh, and they asked if we were Cheeseheads - small world out here! Buddy is okay. S/he apparently damaged a feather and pulled it out this morning. Happy camper now. Ruth surprised me with a birthday card... wow, 65! Time flies when you're having fun. Asked her if being 28 on the 28th was my golden birthday what will I get at 69? She replied... older. Had a great B-day dinner with Ruth & Buddy. Ate his cousin (chicken), corn and mashed potatoes with lots of wine. Life is good! 2/29/08 - Don't get to type Feb 29 that often! Windy sunrise, 10-15 knots on our suspect meter, lots of puffy cumulus clouds scurrying by. We listened to the weather on our VHF from the Basra and Highborne stations. We heard Ariel trying to find an open fuel dock. When Miles found one he radioed with their departure. We hoisted anchor and left our beautiful anchorage for the trip across the shallow (10'-20') Bahamas Bank to Allen's Cay. 15-20 knot winds and 2-3' seas made for a quick trip though we had to motor sail the last half extremely tight on the wind. Ruth caught a large Great Barracuda - kind of. We finally had it on our gaff next to the boat when it bit off the 80 lb test leader, tossed the hook and leaped off the gaff. Gone. Not only did she loose her lure, but during the fight the fish stripped all the gears in her spinning reel rendering it trash. Who caught who? Guess we'll be fishing with a hand line for a while. By 2:30 we were anchored in an inlet between Allen's and Leaf Cay in 10' of water, Ariel was in 8'. Tides here a just under 3'. Miles asked if we'd found more depth... we replied "Welcome to the Bahamas!" We visited the iguanas on Leaf Cay and had drinks on Ariel. Rumors have it that Nicholas Cage just purchased Leaf Cay... his next film - The Night Of The Iguanas? Ruth whipped up a batch of chili and we all had supper on AA. They filled us in on their stay at Atlantis - they had a ball! It was a pleasant night of catching up with each other... a nice start to the Exumas leg of our cruise. |
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Buddy enjoys a good novel... or knee?
Revised alternative power center
Installing new fuel filtering system
Housekeeping... or is it boatkeeping?
Ruth flying "Big Red"
"Bond" motors across the bank
Ariel exits Chub Cay
Are you sure it was port to port?
There's more where that one came from
Nassau does condos right
Atlantis, Ariel's home for a few days
AA at Harbor Club Marina Harbor Club Marina This is our marina of choice since Bradd & Maeve introduced us to it and to Peter, the operator, a couple of years ago. Currently the hotel has been leased to the Carlton Ritz and is closed for total rehab. Peter will continue to operate the marina as a separate facility. While the rooms are being redone the bar and restaurant are closed though the pool, showers and laundry remain open.
Another view, showing shoreline
Too late for Rustoleum?
At anchor, tip of Paradise Island
Porgies Rock light, for our anchorage
Our wave break, Narrows anchorage Bahamas Weather We're getting "forecasts" that weren't available to us last year due to a weak antenna. In actuality they are repeats of the NOAA offshore report for the coast of Florida with the addition of tides for Nassau. The information still has value for timing cold fronts and for vessels departing for the US. If we had short wave we could subscribe to Chris Parker's customized weather forecast. Definitely something I'd do if I were ranging further. With SkyMate we can get location specific forecasts including wind and waves. Miles relies on Sirius radio to get the NOAA forecast. With the three systems we have adequate coverage for our purposes. Were we going beyond the Bahamas we'd want to add SSB (short wave) radio.
Norman Island, out island, by Miles Boats about As we travel we meet others with a similar mission. Some remain only voices on the radio, others share anchorages and are met face to face. Recent boats met include:
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Visit earlier portions of our 2008 east coast travels...
| Boca Raton to Miami, FL - Jan 1 to 15, 2008 | Miami to Key West, FL - Jan 16 to 31, 2008 |
| Key West to Marathon, FL - Feb 1 to 15, 2008 | |
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