Homeward Bound

We left Nassau on a good weather window and sailed like crazy for two days across the banks, anchoring near the Northwest Channel Light the first day (in the middle of nowhere on the ocean, basically) and made it to Bimini the next day. After a day of recovery, we anchored out on the ocean side -which was supposedly in the lee that night - and awaited the Gulf Stream Crossing planned for the next morning. Did we realize that night would blow up like crazy with lightening and thunderstorms all around? I guess not. It was a bit hellish. No, that's an understatement. It was hellish. The boat was being tossed about like crazy, things flying from one side to the other all night, meanwhile lightening is flashing all around and it's raining torrents. Yikes! When it finally all settled down there was no question but we had to limp back to the dock (Weech's Bimini Dock) and tie up and get some rest. Whew! Although the predictions were good for crossing the Gulf Stream in terms of wind direction and wave heights, the threat of thunderstorms was high. I already had flights booked from Palm Beach to Marquette, and was relatively determined to make them. This left us only one option - to go the next day or get stuck behind a new weather front and wait another week in Bimini. We made a deal that if it was nice in the morning we would go. Around midnight, the thunderstorms and lightening blew up again, and persisted throughout the night and into the morning. It all started to lighten up around 7:30am, at which time we started to think really hard. Luckily, a number of other sailors were on the VHF talking about the single sideband reports they had heard and their Sirius weather connections, etc. While Wayne was talking to the guys in the boat next door, I heard a conversation between 2 parties, one of whom said the latest report was rising barometric pressure in Miami and the other who said the radar showed the thunderstorms moving off to the north. I popped up out of the boat and said, "we're going". Wayne looked at me for a minute (having had hair-raising experiences with thunderstorms on Lake Superior) and said, "ok." By 9:00 that morning we had gotten out the tricky entrance channel and were in the Gulf Stream. The wind was pretty good - South-Southwest - which gave us a close-hauled reach. The current was pushing us north and the wave heights were very decent. We blasted across the Ocean at maximum speed and ended up in the Fort Lauderdale mooring field by 5pm. Heaven! We made it! We were beat but euphoric. Didn't get off the boat till the next day. About 30 miles and 13 bridges later (each bridge requires one to wait for the next "opening" time) we dropped anchor in Lantana near the Old Lime House restaurant. We knew this anchorage from our way down with Claude. We inflated the dinghy, put the motor on (which by some miracle worked) and got into town. There may in fact be a god or maybe it was the force. Well, whatever it was - there was a public library within 6 blocks with internet and printer capabilities. Wayne managed to activate the cell phone, book his own flights with frequent flyer miles, and call the marina in Indiantown. I booked a hotel room near the airport on Hotwire, printed out my flight and hotel confirmations, and we were golden. Had a lovely dinner at the Old Key Lime House and took the dinghy back to Cassie for my last night on board. The anchorage was wonderfully calm and we spend a lovely night. Bags packed and ready for action, Wayne dropped me off this morning and went on to do battle with about 45 more miles of the ICW (including bridges, bummer) to take the boat to Stuart on the St. Lucie River. He will anchor in the Hobe Sound tonight and with any luck reach civilization again tomorrow. I feel awful for bailing on him but... I just took a very long, luxurious shower in the lovely room I have at the Doubletree (used to be the Radisson) after a great run and workout in the clean and well-equipt gym. I am using a computer which is available to guests at all times, and I feel and smell great! I have HBO in the room and am not likely to leave it very often. I have books, television, a bathroom, individually controlled climate, all the soap and lotion and toilet paper I could ever want. In short, nirvana. I understand it's snowing at home and have asked my son to bring me warm socks, boots and a jacket when he picks me up (with any luck my plane will make it) tomorrow night. Maybe I'll still get a chance to do some cross-country skiing this year! The Carribean chapter closed for me now, my thoughts are entirely with my family and friends up north. We have decided, however, to keep Cassie another year and venture off to and through the Florida Keys next winter. Yeehaw!

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Bimini and the trip home

We blasted up to Bimini from Nassau in 2 days, and took the day off today to recover. Bimini as you may know is a famed fishing haunt of Ernest Hemingway. We saw a lot of photos and interesting memorabilia in the museum and just generally hung out all day. It's a very fun place, but not a fun place to take your boat in and out of - the channel is narrow and inobvious. We'll be basically going by sight to the deeper waters. We're leaving in just a couple of hours to navigate this treacherous channel, make a big arc and swing around to the ocean side of north Bimini where we will drop the hook asap and just hang on until the wee hours of the morning. This will require more navigation by sight and depth sounder but we are communing with the medichlorians and hope the force will be with us. Then we'll lift up the anchor in the wee hours and head straight over to Lake Worth, thereby crossing the Gulf Stream during what we hope is an excellent weather window. Homeward bound!

Finally - the green flash!

The last few days have been full of action and adventure as we sail back up the Exumas to eventually cross back to the States from Bimini. We had a CRANKING big sail from Staniel Cay to Norman's Cay - 20+ knot winds and a great beam reach. Cassie hit 7 knots plus with just the Main and the Genoa. What a great ride! At Norman's we enjoyed a lovely walk on the beach ( having wisely anchored on the west side this time) and "the best burger in the Bahamas" at McDuff's. But the highlight of the evening came just as we were leaving. McDuff's has an outstandingly lovely large porch which faces the ocean and gives one the most extraordinary view of the sunset. The sun was just starting to slip below the horizon, so I gathered up Wayne and two elderly couples on the porch to enjoy the view and we were all startled and ecstatic to see - for the first time ever- the GREEN FLASH! The other 2 couples were leaving Norman's the next day, and were so enthused by the event it was totally uplifting. The next day we snuck out between the sand bars and sailed all the way to Nassau, where we are now. Life is great on the homeward stretch and we expect to be in Bimini within a week's time. The Bahamas have been a dream come true, and Cassie has been a mighty and fine boat. We do have one party interested in her presently, and will just wait to see how it all develops. For now, we are living it up in Nassau!

Back in Staniel

Back in Staniel Cay, which is now a George Town satellite. What a difference from our first visit here – last night we were at the lovely Yacht Club clubhouse and just about everyone who walked in was someone we already knew. This included a huge surprise for us as we were amazed to see Bill and Caroline walk in – our friends from Oriental, NC! We had been wondering if they had ever made it south on Worthless Wench and indeed they did. They had their own horror stories of leaving only to encounter major boat/engine/systems problems and having to return to their departure point almost immediately. After an extensive amount of time and money, they left again. This time they put the hammer down and did a five-day open water crossing to Spanish Wells! They have been at Staniel for over a month, and are really enjoying the laid-back atmosphere and beautiful reefs and beaches.

As for ourselves, we seem to be hooked on the lifestyle despite the challenges and have decided to put Cassiopeia on the market. Yes, we are sick, sick, sick and hoping to buy a bigger boat so that we can have guests! We intend to take Cassie to Indiantown where we hope someone who wants to get into cruising will take advantage of her being in Florida already, dispensing with the need to torture oneself down the ICW. She’s a great boat, mighty sailor (we even passed people on the big Exuma sound coming up from Georgetown to the Cave Cay cut), and has no systems to fail. Our mighty diesel has been performing like a champ every time, and the icebox only requires the addition of ice to keep stuff cold. The only reason we need a larger boat is so that mom and kids and friends can come and share this incredible experience with us. She’s the perfect “starter” boat for a cruising couple, her kinks already having been worked out by this past year.

Speaking of incredible experiences, yesterday we got to dive on the Thunderball cave. Glorious, riotous schools of brightly-colored tropical fish swim within inches of your nose and surround you while piercing shafts of sunlight illuminate the swirling sea life. I had an old waterproof instamatic that must have been Sarah’s from Presbytery Point, and took a few photos I guess. I guess because you can’t really see what the heck you are doing through the mask, etc and I was clearly on the move while doing this. It would be fun if they turn out, but I’m not holding my breath. Today we have more chores ahead and less fun – we need to prepare for the next Norther which will come through tonight or early tomorrow morning including moving the boat to a more protected anchorage. With all the friends in the anchorage and the lovely locals in Staniel, I can hardly think of a better place to be.

Regatta Wrap up

The wind has been coming from the North now for about 24 hours, and we are tucked well away from it behind the huge hill upon which sits the famous George Town Monument. The monument is really just an obelisk, put there many years ago before GPS systems so that sailors might have a visual clue as to where they were. Regatta week is winding down, and Wayne with it. Our regatta week woes started with the implosion of the propeller on our new dinghy motor. A shear pin malfunction is about all I know. It would have been darn close to impossible to get a suitable replacement part (a small plastic propeller) shipped to us in any reasonable amount of time for less than about $100. So, we decided to upgrade from a 3.5 horsepower motor to an 8! The guy who sold it to us blew town the next day after claiming it had worked great for him. For about a day, we were in heaven! Then one of our very astute boating friends said he heard a whine characteristic of a lack of oil in the bottom shaft assembly. This nice guy was willing to help Wayne pull the dinghy up on the beach and haul the motor onto a picnic table to perform the necessary maintenance. It took about 20 minutes, after which the 2 men brought the motor back to the water for a little test. Holding onto the motor, they started it up in neutral and checked the functioning. Wayne’s buddy Doug said, “OK man, now shut er off…” Woe to the Wayne. His brain transmogrified this simple command into an error so incomprehensible that it is to be the main joke at the Variety Show tonight. To wit, instead of pushing the little red button which would have shut off the motor, Wayne’s hand somehow selected the option of pushing forward the lever which would in fact put the motor in gear, thus causing 8 hp of propeller power to spin wildly under the water. Of course the guys both let go of the thrashing motor, but Wayne’s brain went even further to instruct him that he should somehow try to tackle the beast. “Get the f**k away from it, man!!!!!”, yelled Doug. Luckily Wayne came out of the experience with a bruised and abraded right leg but no permanent damage. The motor itself gradually choked with water and stopped, at which point the guys dragged it back out to the picnic table – but now the task at hand was a 2-hour cleaning and attempt to extract every bit of water and salt from the important parts. This seemed to work and Wayne took it for a test drive. During the test drive, the propeller on the “new” motor decided it was time to quit as well by slipping out of sync. Doug jury-rigged it with some screws and the guys ordered a new propeller from Nassau, which should arrive tomorrow on the “Grand Master” which is the primary source of supplies for all of George Town. Since then, it has alternately worked and not worked, started and not started, and has generally been an excruciating pain in the ass. There is a medical term for this sort of ass pain – exquisite tenderness. Any thought of dinghies, dinghy motors, propellers or the like puts Wayne into a funk of monumental proportions, which brings us back to our anchorage at the monument. In just a few hours, we will complete our Regatta Week activities by taking the stage for our one shining moment of glory, singing the George Town Blues. We debuted the song aboard Free Bird in front of about 120 dinghies at George Town’s first ever rock-n-roll dinghy drift and have not stopped to receive compliments since. Folks tell us we are sure to be the big hit of the Variety Show tonight. This is taking for granted the idea that we are actually going to be able to get there. Soon I’ll be waking the captain from a well-deserved nap to prepare for the show and give us about an hour’s lead time for what should be a ten minute dinghy ride. Yes, Regatta Week has been fun – yesterday we participated in the Sand Sculpture contest and the Arts and Crafts fair. Wayne sold two wall pieces and I just about cleaned out my entire inventory, so it hasn’t been all bad. If I can, I’ll post up a picture or two of some of my friends modeling my jewelry.

I should also mention that we were aboard our friends Gord and Suzanne’s boat last night (Camelot II) enjoying a delicious stew and a few hands of euchre. The boating community has repeatedly come to our assistance with rides here and there, offers of dinner when we run out of food, offers to use the internet, technical advice and assistance – you name it these guys are great.

Sorry about the length of this post, but it is now Wednesday and we brought Cassie over to the town side of the bay in the hope of getting her “gassed up” (with diesel) and ready for the trip home. It is blustery, the wind from the SE and coming 20 to 25 knots. Why did we think this was a good idea? I guess because we want to be ready for the good weather window coming up this weekend. We found that a number of huge luxury ships are docked at the rickety George Town facility, some right in front of the gas dock. Rather than attempting to sneak in there and possibly do major damage, we have elected to throw out the anchor and wait out the blow. It should settle down tonight and we’ll reassess and try to gas up tomorrow.

Our tune was a big hit last night! People want us to record it and then send it to them on MP3 format. I am hoping our son Thomas will help us do this, being the computer whiz he is. One guy suggested we get electronic boat cards with the song on a little chip. Perhaps if we should win the lottery or some money just falls out of the sky. For the present moment, however, all monies continue to be poured into the hole in the water which is known as the boat. We know this to be par for the course, and are slowly resigning ourselves to the realities of boat life. But there are always upsides! Tonight is karaoke night at Eddie’s Edgewater, and since we’re over here anyway we might just be adventuresome and go. Fred’s (my bridge partner) three charming daughters are here and we’ve been hanging around with them a bunch. They are three young professional women; one just got her PhD in Latin American Studies, one works for the Mayor of New York City – Bloomberg, and the third is just out of college and cutting her teeth in the big bad world. They are a lot of fun and very bright to boot so here’s hoping they might show up as well for another night of silliness and singing.

more regatta fun

just a quick update: Wayne's team won second place in Volleyball, and my partner and I won second place in the beginner's bridge tournament. For an idea what this is all like, please go to georgetowncruisingregatta.org or google it up. We are still (again) in dinghy motor hell, now having purchased one from another guy. Funny thing, he left right afterwards. Now it won't start and we need a new prop. Geez Louise, we are about ready to cash it in and head back north. If there wasn't all that snow...anyway more action shots and news as soon as the internet is more available. (Like when the dinghy motor works.)