2008 Cruising

3/1 to 3/15/2008

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 03/21/2008

3/1/08 - Saturday, end of a week and a brand new month! Gray sky this morning, even had a little mini-shower. We ran 12 miles down to Norman Cay under headsail, doing about 5.6 knots with a 15-18 knot wind on our tail. Ariel quickly outran AA, even with their smaller headsail length paid dividends. As they neared Norman Miles called to relate he'd noticed my C-Map chips had more chart detail of this area than his current RayMarine system, hence he'd lurk outside until we got there with local knowledge and more detailed charts. We led them into the cut, staying in 11-14 feet of water until it ran out... anchoring in 10'. The wind continues to blow steadily in the upper teens. The forecast says this is our lot until Tuesday night when it is likely to get stronger, approaching gale force. Just like last year and totally unlike the year before. At 1pm we were the first two boats in the anchorage. Mid afternoon they started flowing in until we had 7. 3/2/08 - Another cloudy windy day. Winds in the 20 - 25 knot range kept us in the harbor. We did a little exploring around Carlos Leder's drug distribution complex and the old plane wreck. Renee and Ruth found a few nice shells. We retired after spaghetti on Ariel. About 1am I got up as our wind speed was reading 22 knots, the wind was singing in the rigging and our wind generator was free-wheeling... all of which told me the wind was over 30 knots. Miles confirmed mid-thirties with gust to 40 when he radioed to see if I was standing anchor watch - I was. 3/3/08 - Sun this morning and moderated wind, maybe 10 - 15 knots. We motor sailed to Warderick Wells, arriving early afternoon. Enroute several boats asked us to relay radio messages to the park checking on their reservations for a mooring. One vessel was quite distant, still being in Highborne Cay. After we relayed the message they called us again to thank us. It wasn't until later that the light went on... it was Autumn Voyager, Bob & Judy Powell, our hosts at Windswept. We called them back with greetings from Bradd, Maeve, John & Nell... that set them back a few moments before they responded Ruth & Barry, if you'd have put Buddy on the radio we'd have made the connection right away. 3/4/08 - I worked most of the day for the park. My assignment was to repair a structural crack in their larger fiberglass patrol boat. By the end of the day the structure had been restored. While I waited for resins to cure I helped with other projects. Keeping the park going generates a long to-do list and volunteers provide most of the talents. Ruth worked most of the day with a wifi connection and Miles' satellite phone. I took a swim after work, then we went to an impromptu beach happy hour, joining the Powell's, their son and his wife, and a number of other boaters. We talked, learning of each other while we watched Megan (the Powell's dog) dive for rocks. 3/5/08 - Today dawned sunny with lighter winds, maybe 10 knots. I worked at the park all day, finishing the repairs on the ranger boat and a couple of other projects... including a whale. They asked me to consult on their project to save the whale... skeleton. It is deteriorating at a rapid pace and they wanted to protect it with a polymer. We explored our options and set up a test that they will follow for the next couple of months. Interesting! 3/6/08 - We departed at 8:30, motoring into the wind all the way to Staniel Cay. Enroute we talked to Autumn Voyager who was north bound. By noon we were in Staniel. Ariel took a mooring near the grotto while we anchored just across the channel in the same spot we'd visited on Sampatecho two years ago. We explored the town for a while, visiting the bakery (a home) for some great bread and stopping it at both grocery stores (small homes with provisions for sale). The population is about 170 persons. Returning to the boat I made up a new anchor snubber as our old one was chaffing through - maintenance is an ongoing fact of life on a boat. We snorkeled the grotto, famous as the site for James Bond's Thunderball. We went to the Thunderball restaurant for dinner. It was interesting. All diners require advanced reservations and orders... however they had 2 rib dinners and appetizers available. The waitress noted the ribs were about 9" long, a nice half rack. Ruth ordered one, as did Laureen and Miles. Miraculously they had 3 orders... but the racks were only 5" long. If I'd ordered ribs I bet they would have had four orders of 4" racks. As for the dessert... the other table ordered everything the cook had so the bartender gave us a drink. 3/7/08 - We are expecting another cold front and will head to Georgetown on it's tail so Ariel can pick up David. Ruth put together a gift package of books, beach glass,sunglasses and a great book on glassing for the Staniel Library. We delivered it before revisiting the Bakery and exploring the airport and parts of the island we'd not seen before. It is beautiful with a contrast of barrenness and vegetation. These islands are rugged! Ruth is on the foredeck casting for fish. Kewl! I saw a couple of nice 2' fish swim by a little earlier... she's trying to entice them into our frying pan. We thought we saw Fourth Watch at anchor today... but no, it was a light blue Tartan about the same size with the same color canvas - though it didn't look as good as theirs. Quiet evening, Ruth fishing, I'm listening to golden oldies and studying charts. After the front passes tomorrow we'll head for Georgetown the following day - we're about 50 miles away. Ruthie is learning new fishing gear... didn't realize she'd never really been exposed to open spool spinning reels... she'll love the reel David is bringing for us. 3/8/08 - A little hazy at dawn today. As I was eating breakfast a worldly yacht moved from anchor to a pier near our anchorage. Had to photo it... my yacht's bigger than... what? Your house, the neighborhood, the island? I think we also saw our first "shadow" boat yesterday. A sleek Euro-design motor vessel named C.... entered the harbor followed by a smaller one, same color and style, named Baby C.... (didn't get the name). (Shadow boats are vessels that carry supplies, crew, toys for the guests on the larger yacht - it's a tough world out here). Listening to the motor yachts arrange for fuel... "I need only 500 gallons", "I'm looking to take on 1,000 gallons of diesel", "Do you have a couple thousand gallons of diesel available?" Prices are running midway between $4 and $5/gallon - ouch. Some of these yachts carry almost as much fuel as the local fuel barges. Whoops, speaking of fuel barges Staniel Cay Yacht Club just announced they were out of diesel fuel. Lots of boats scrambling for a safe anchorage today. The Yacht Club ordered all boats out of the club slips until after the front passes through. That cleared most of the large motor yachts out. Those in private slips remained. We let out more chain putting us at about 6:1 scope and backed down on our anchor to 3/4 throttle. I checked it with our glass bottom bucket and found it well buried in white sand. We also used the handheld depth sounder for the first time. Ruth bought it as my Christmas gift but we kept forgetting we had it. Today it was invaluable as we used the dinghy and depth sounder to check out safe anchorages for ourselves and Two Oars, a trawler. Nice gift Ruthie! 3/9/08 - The front pretty much was a non-event. The wind died just before dusk, then turned noticeably cooler and picked up slowly to a high of maybe 20 knots. It also swung almost 180 degrees before settling in at 15 knots from the north. At 2am (when else?) the tide reversed and the wind picked up again causing our anchor alarm to sound. Ruth got me up and I quickly determined the anchor was holding okay - the alarm reflected the boat's travel from one extreme of the swing pattern to the other (I intentionally set our alarm tight at 0.03 nautical mile, about 186 feet. With 100 feet of chain out we can swing in a 190' circle). I sat up for an hour to make sure our neighbors all remained securely anchored through the reversal. Miles was on the radio by 6:45a... we'd both been gathering weather reports and decided today looked a little rough for the run to Georgetown given that the cold front had elected to stall over us. Ruth decided to try a new coconut oil in her hair, not realizing that nice clear coconut oil turns to wax at about 75 degrees. When she tried to wash her hair and rinse it out it did the lard effect and she had a butch waxed blond helmet head. She looked like one of the cheap plastic dolls that you exchange hair color with a different plastic head.  It took a couple of days before she figured out how to purge it (hot water and Joy).  There's still one day left to get the greasie kid stuff out of her hair.  Globby, but funny! Ruthie and I read for a while and played scrabble in the afternoon. We each won a game and we tied the last one. Not a bad day at the s-board for me... it's usually a wipeout on Ruth's part. Okay, Buddy was helping me pick the tiles while he was sitting on my arm. 3/10/08 - Woke to find the front still stalled over us - gray skies and whistling wind. If it weren't 75 degrees you'd swear it was Wisconsin. Mile's mooring was on the edge of the breaking water from the inlet. At times yesterday it looked like Ariel was perched at the onset of a rapids. We had a great sail on the bank enroute to Little Farmer Cay in 15-20 knot winds. AA had up a main and genoa, Ariel just her jib up (it was all she needed), maintaining mid 7's all the way. We had several small squalls and a little rain - nothing to deter us. By noon we were anchored in 13' of water just west of Galiot Cay. AA led the way to a a nice cove with a sand beach and crystal clear water as Ariel's chart plotter didn't include detail of the water here. We bought a couple of lobster and fish from a local boat... fresh seafood for supper. Only $18 and  a 3 beer payment to the fishermen.  Wonderful!  Ruth and I  then went into a little exploring journey with the dinghy and our glass bottomed 5 gallon bucket. We saw 16" starfish, a 36" ray and numerous colorful reef fish. We also saw a goat standing on a rock outlook. Miles & Laureen brought their lobsters to AA and we cooked dinner. Mmmmm! Our first southern lobster (actually more like large crawfish) - excellent! Great ending to a good day. We all agreed Galliot Cay was a place we wanted to come back to and spend some time snorkeling.  Great reef features. 3/11/08 - Woke to Miles knocking on the hull. Sunrise and time to leave. 10 minutes later I was raising the anchor. With a flooding tide and little wind Galliot Cut was a piece of cake... smooth as a country road. The little wind there was was out of the south... precisely the direction we were going so our two "trawlers with tall antennae" motored south to Georgetown. This is all new country for AA, and Ariel... should prove interesting. Enroute we saw literally dozens of boats - mostly sail - going and coming along the coast in the light air and gentle seas. Georgetown by 2:30... the path in is like the approach to landing at Chicago. A long series of waypoints and course changes. We anchored just outside Victoria Harbor and took the dinghy to town to get a WiFi connection. Got it eventually, hence this update. I dove the boat and cleaned the bottom. We had a small reef growing... time to get hauled and paint - when we get back to the states. This is likely our turn-around point. After David heads home we'll jump across Exumas sound and work our way up the Abaco chain toward Bimini and the US. All of our guest pooped out so it looks like we'll be sharing this cruise only thorough the website. 3/12/08 - Woke to the voices of the Georgetown Cruisers' Net. Ruth was up before me... is the world coming to an end?... and had the radio on. We're anchored in the middle of the regatta course - can't get two sailboats together without it becoming a race. Actually it's pretty cool having the boats pass a few feet from us as they beat to weather. These are all cruising boats, but the competition is serious. Finally got the web published. Not a simple task here. However after a couple of false starts we found a cafe with free WiFi if you bought something. We each had a beer and decided to stay for lunch. Guess their marketing plan works! 3/13/08 - Watched the sun rise over a small island to our port side. Indescribable colors! As the sun was rising the MailBoat slowly picked its way to the docks with mail, cars, passengers and trucks for Georgetown. The boats are a critical part of life on these islands. At 8 we listened to the Georgetown Cruisers' Net and got the lowdown on what's going on today. They sure have a dynamic cruising community assembled here. It looks like we'll hang around here for David's visit as there is so much to do and see. David brought Ruth's new casting reel when he arrived the other day. We rigged it today, spooling on line and a lure, then modifying the rod holder to accommodate the new reel. This one is a real salt water fishing catching reel... no excuses now (I still think fishing is cheaper in a fish market) But Ruthie thinks it's much more fun to have your legs shaking with excitement when she catches a big one.  I guess the market doesn't do that for her... I read and did small maintenance projects most of the day while Ruth used our iffy WiFi connection to try to do business. We went to the Heritage Festival last night. It was Gospel Singing Night. We saw and heard some dynamic music and dancing. Interestingly this festival started 4 years ago as part of the Cruising Community's Regatta Week. It's growth and popularity was so explosive the cruisers turned it over to the Bahaman Dept of Tourism? who now run it. It draws people from all over the Nation, and cruisers from all over the world. 3/14/08 - Damn, another beautiful sunrise. Georgetown is a very neat place. The day starts with a rooster crowing over the VHF as the Cruisers' net come on the air.  Today Ruth worked while I read. We took a break to join the crew of Ariel on a snorkeling expedition. We're spoiled, all agreed we need to explore a better place tomorrow. Took the dinghy to town for gas ($5.00/gallon) and water (free). Realized at current prices we have over $100.00 of fuel on deck. A sailor at the dock asked if I knew where he could find Harbour WiFi. I said yes but I wasn't going to tell him. He looked at me questioningly... I responded if I told him how, and he bought their lack of service, he'd hate me. Better I noted to go to the purple restaurant, order a beer and get free high performance WiFi. Back to work for Ruthie, we have "wifi". I did a few small chores and dried the $20 I had in my swimsuit. We'd totally destroy our budget if we hung around here too long. We took the dinghy to a music fest off the bow of Free Bird. What an unexpected treat! The first act was a song writer and singer that had a good sound. The headliners were "White Folks on Boats". They are a pick-up band of cruisers that will be performing tomorrow night at the Festival. THEY WERE GREAT! The gal singing lead really got the crowd going. Georgetown This is a Mecca for visiting cruisers. At time 500 boats have been counted anchored in this roadstead. Some boats arrive early and spend the whole season at anchor. When the fleet is in they about double the population of this little town. Georgetown is cruiser friendly. In addition to the daily cruisers' net there is an unending list of activities: racing, seminars, volleyball - about anything you can imagine. Though small, Georgetown provides a clinic, water, groceries, airport, parts, phone, internet (kinda), and most other items a cruiser might need. WiFi was a bit of a challenge. We bought a prepaid one day card for $5.00 only to find it wasn't accepted by the system. Took it back to town for a rebate and found ourselves in the middle of a family squabble. Mom answered the door with "I dina sell you dat." Her son said see the man in the blue house on the hill. Went there and recognized him as the seller. He took the card back to the first house, checked on the computer and came out saying they had no valid one day cards left... only weekly for $15.00. He needed another $10.00 or I could have my $5 back. Okayyyy, we needed to get online for business, sooo... I paid another $10.00. That got us on line but the connection was so poor we could only send/receive e-mail. Learned about a cafe in town with internet. Went there and got a strong signal but the server kept kicking us out. After 5 tries we got the website published and our banking done. Now we know why sailors say Arrrgh!

Click on the photos for an 8" x 10" view. Use Back to return to the site. Norman Island, out island, by Miles Ariel at Emerald Rock, by Miles Overview of Crescent Harbor, Miles Close-up Crescent Harbor, by Miles Laureen, Africa is out there.... somewhere, by Miles Laureen and the Bananakeets, by Miles AA at Norman Cay, by Miles My yacht's bigger than... Uptown, home port Minneapolis, MN Ariel sports her flag... finally First view of Great Exumas Cay A view of Georgetown anchorage Racers pass AA Racers beating past Ariel AA sister ship races by David, Ruth Laureen & Miles - Georgetown Traffic Circle Mom's Bakery shop - good stuff! Mail boat arriving Georgetown Typical island ship Ship passes Yacht anchored in background - both about equal sized Live concert on Free Bird "White Folks on Boats" performs Concert dinghy audience Wing on the beach Water taxi picks up David - homebound

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	Marathon, FL to Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 16 - 29