2009 Log
3/15 to 3/31/2009
This is our log for 2009; our other voyages are in Prior Voyages.
We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to history; pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!
Updated on 01/28/2011
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3/16/09 - Cloudless blue dawn, 10-15 knot wind, warm enough to have coffee in the cockpit sans shirt... nice! We sailed, motor sailed and finally motored the last 4 miles directly into the wind to get to the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. We'll stay here at least a day so I can do a little volunteer work while Ruth uses WIFI for e-mail and phone (Skype) to follow up her work. Lunch today was grilled Mahi Mahi sandwiches. We both agreed it was the best fish sandwich we've ever eaten - eat your heart out Ronald McD. 3/17/09 - Woke to another great day. A few clouds towering east of us but only a light scattering of high clouds above us. Ruth went to work with the computer. With Skype and WIFI she has great contact; voice and mail. I went to work as a volunteer for the Park. I try to give them two days a year. Today I unloaded a barge of lumber, installed a VHF, installed a compass on another vessel and did eye splices for moorings. Paul and Barbara of Faraway Eyes organized a sundowner and fire on the beach tonight. It was fun to get together with the crews of the boats moored in the park. 3/18.09 - A bright dawn with small shear wisps of clouds high overhead. It was one of calmest nights we've had. It showed on our lack of wind generation - down 70 amp hours at 7:30am. By 4 pm we were down to -3, full recovery and no fuel burned. Gotta love those 4 solar panels, new LED lighting and wind generator! Thank god the expense and work is behind us so we can relax and enjoy the new freedom we have courtesy of Mother Nature. At the beach last night we met a couple from Spring Green, PA. Turns out he was a customer when we owned a share of Appleton Mfg. Small world! On my way to work he stopped me with an invitation for sundowners on their vessel Brunelle. Today Ruth worked trying to put together a couple of ongoing deals. I salvaged lumber (nothing is wasted here), not even the bent nails! I finished splicing two mooring pendants, and spliced a new pendant with a swivel for one of their patrol boats. 3/19/09 - Ruthie here -Happy Birthday Angela!!! Wow, how did you get to be 34 so fast! I guess we ARE getting older. Wish we were there to take you out to dinner and a coupla, two, tree beers! We'll have to make up for it the next time we visit. Barry is volunteering again today at the Park. They are very lucky to have his talents to tap. I'm sure they appreciate everything he does and he has fun helping out knowing he's making a difference. Miles and I worked on the staff housing boat today, putting up railings so they don't fall overboard and drown. :-> I enjoy working for the Exuma Land and Sea Park... they would not exist if not for the generosity of the mariners that visit the park - yet the piece of the environment they are protecting is priceless! 3/20/09 - Hey, its spring! I spent most of the day working on Owl, the floating house that the park is trying to restore as staff housing. Miles pitched in as did Dan and we got the life lines pretty much reconstructed. Ruth worked at the paper business, moving ahead on a couple of projects. Then she prepared for entertaining Dan, Martha, Laureen and Miles for hors de vours at sundown. Ruth's seasoned boiled shrimp were great! We had a fun evening with interesting folks. 3/21/09 - The wind blew in last night. At 8am our batteries were only down 31 amp hours thanks to the Rutland wind generator. A light rain during the night failed to wake us but gave the boat a rinse. By early morning the sky was clear. We took a down day and read all morning. I grilled the last of the Mahi Mahi for luncheon sandwiches. We got a lot of great meals off those two fish. Then I pulled our berth apart and removed the fuel pick-up. Surprise, the screen was gone. Guess I blew it off with the bike pump. We dropped in a hose and pumped out a gallon of fuel to check for contamination. finding none I reassembled the fuel pick-up and the aft berth. We're whole again! 3/22/08 - Strong winds last night, we woke up to find our power was only down -8. The wind generator was really honking last night. The weather forecasters say we'll have a few more days like this. Took a down day and did nothing - nothing at all. A little reading, then an excellent chicken dinner on Ariel. 3/23/09 - The winds howled all night. We woke to clear skies and full batteries. The only time we've run the engine the past week is two 15 minute stints to heat water... nice! I removed the dinghy bro and made a couple small mods to improve it's performance. Then Ruth and I ran to the ranger station as a test run and to clear our account in preparation for moving on. The bro works better with less spray at full throttle and strong winds. We took a walk, climbing Boo Boo Hill to pay our respects to Gary and watch the waves crash against the headlands. The ecology of the islands is very interesting. Its hard to believe this land was once forested by tall trees that man harvested leaving the topsoil exposed. Wind and rain removed the topsoil leaving barren rock (limestone). Miles dropped off his dinghy seat storage bag - a zipper had failed. I dug out the sewing machine again and put one in for him... nasty little job given the bag was assembled, but we gotterdone. Ruth went online for e-mail and news, 100 megabytes of band width disappeared so fast we were in awe. I'm not sure what happened. 3/24/09 - We're still in the compression zone with winds blowing 24 hours a day in the 15 - 20 knot range, gusts higher. Temperatures from the low to high 70's, ideal. I bought another unit of WIFI and duplicated most of Ruth's activities of yesterday. It didn't use 10% of our available bandwidth... hummm? We moved from a mooring to anchor in preparation for moving further south to Black Point. While we were moving Ruth noted that our wind indicator was not registering speed... why am I not surprised? We joined Miles & Laureen for sundowners on Dave & Beth Johnson's catamaran Grateful Attitudes. They've cruised this area for 7 years and gave us a wealth of local knowledge. 3/25/08 - The wind howled all night. Our anchorage was snug and we had no problems. Ariel came by at 9am so we hoisted anchor and sailed after them in 18 - 24 knot winds. Mid afternoon we arrived at Black Point, the second largest town in the Exumas - second only to Georgetown. Surprisingly while our new antenna can read signals from a half dozen WIFI sources none are strong enough to connect to, typically only 1 bar. We grilled a nice pair of 1-1/2" thick rib eyes for dinner... delicious. Tomorrow we'll have to walk Black Point all day to work it off - worth every step! 3/26/09 - The wind sang us a robust lullaby all night. It sounded like a WI January night outside. Coffee in the cockpit confirmed we were still in balmy weather. We went into town and walked the main road viewing newer homes and older buildings. Ruth did the beaches coming up with coral bits and shells. Laureen did their wash in a very nice laundromat. Folks were sitting on the porches of many of the homes we passed, talking and plaiting 6" wide rolls of grasses. The rolls are sent to Nassau where they are made into hats and baskets. Another source of income. School was in session. The 70 students look sharp in their uniforms. After 10th grade the kids have to go to Nassau for high school, a very expensive education as the children have to be boarded there. We had lunch at DeShamons, a great home-made garbage pizza. It was excellent and we have enough left over for lunch (or breakfast) tomorrow! Returning to the boat Ruth took the dinghy to go beaching and I stripped and sanded the teak hand rails on the cabin top. I agree with Miles that every proper boat has teak, but you should be able to hold it in the palm of your hand and store it out of the sun. 3/27/09 - The wind is still with us, consequently Sampatecho is still stuck in Cuba. We went ashore to do laundry and pick up a loaf of bread we'd ordered yesterday. Laundry took us to lunch so we met Miles & Laureen at Lorraine's for lunch and free WIFI (donations accepted - we did). Lunch took a couple of hours (Lorraine was heavy with child) and the WIFI was slow... hey mon, no problem. It wasn't like we had to get back to work. Speaking of work, back on the boat I sanded more teak, getting ready for West Systems Epoxy and varnish. I sure hope this new procedure creates a longer lasting finish. Sikkens and varnish lasts only about 90 days in the sun; hopefully epoxy and varnish will last at least a year and be easier to sustain with light sanding and an additional coat of varnish. We like Black Point, it will definitely be a waypoint on our next journey south. The people are helpful and friendly. The folks here struggle to survive and do it with grace. 3/28/09 - Another clear windy morning. We ran out of water last night so we made an early morning run with our two 5 gallon containers. Along the way we watch for rays - we've seen several since anchoring at Black Point. They seem to like the white sand shallows of the bay. There is a significant number of abandoned unfinished newer homes on the island. Most appear to have once been roofed but left without windows and doors. Subsequent storms and weathering have severely damaged the roofs allowing the walls to deteriorate. One wonders what stories the buildings could tell of dreams lost. We found a nice anchorage along our route to Staniel Cay, so we pulled in for the night. Ariel continued on to the mooring field at Staniel. Once anchored I troubleshot the wind instrument and found a bad connection in the junction box at the base of the mast - problem solved. A coat of epoxy sealed the rails and seats I'd prepared the past few days. After a light sanding they'll get another coat followed by the varnish. We went exploring; first using our glass bottomed bucket to explore the reef along the island, then walking the sand flats of "The Dries" looking for shells. Ruth found a couple of keepers. 3/29/09 - We woke to another sunny, windy day. Coffee, a banana and a slice of Black Point home baked banana bread became breakfast. Afterward I lightly sanded the teak and applied a second coat of epoxy. Then we settled in to read until noon. The sky clouded, looking and feeling like rain what is sorely needed. Alas, it didn't materialize. Ruth went exploring on the Dries while I explored the reef along the edges off the island looking for bugs (lobsters)... didn't find any. A couple of sailboats anchored near us late afternoon. Everyone was spaced far enough apart that we each had our own private spot. 3/30/09 - Light overcast at dawn quickly burned off. We went into Staniel Cay Yacht club taking on $39.00 of diesel and $45.00 of water (113 gallons - our tanks were dry). Then we moved near where Ariel was moored, just off of the Thunderball grotto. Our wind instrument is out of commission again... guess I need to look deeper; thought I'd found the problem the other day. After checking voltages in the system and finding no real faults I turned the display on and it worked; arrgghhh! Miles & Laureen picked up their guest, David, today. He's always fun to have around. 3/31/09 - Another... yah, yah, yah. Anyway, we enjoyed it fully. Morning was a shopping trip. First to Titta's to order bread (baked while we wander), then to the Pink Supermarket (nothing we needed), then on the Blue Supermarket (two houses away and much better stocked), then to the couch pile and the boat yard. Brad from Ames would have enjoyed the projects there - classic island racing boats. They don't need much to rebuild a boat as you can see from the extent of the repairs being done. When they do them I don't know - we've never seen anyone working on one but they do change over time. After we picked up the bread we went dinghy exploring. Behind Big Major we found a wreck from a storm the past year. BTW, the chart here reads anchor holding varies... guess they found a bad spot. Then we went looking for the wild pigs, finding them at the third beach we tried. A boatload of tourists came to the beach with food and waded ashore as the pigs swam out to meet them. I'm sorry, it's a lot like feeding sharks. Pigs have and do kill humans, eating them. One gal was feeding the pig by holding one end of a wiener in her mouth. Guess what lady, the pig is eating m-e-a-t. Oh well, news for another day. Speaking of pigs and meat we dined with the Ariel crew at the Staniel Key Yacht Club. Ruth and I had barbequed ribs... delicious. |
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2009 Logs
| Boca Raton, 1/1 to 1/15/09 | Boca Raton, 1/15 to 1/31/09 |
| Boca Raton to Miami, 2/1 to 2/15/09 | Miami/Boca/Lauderdale, 2/16 to 2/28/09 |
| Boca to Alan Cay, Bahamas 3/1 to 3/15/09l | |
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