Passage to the Bahamas

Having heard a lot of horror stories of the Gulfstream swallowing many boats, we took this passage very seriously.  We knew if it looked too bad, we could turn around and head back or stay close to shore in Hawk Channel.  We made the turn from Boot Key Harbor into Hawk Key Channel at 11:00 a.m., facing 15-20 knot winds and 3-5 foot seas.  This gave us concern as we didn’t know what the open gulfstream would have in store for us.  So, we set out the jib and decided to head east along the Keys to see if the wind would calm down before entering the gulfstream.  We were making good time at 6+ knots, but the seas were still a bit heavy.  We had to dodge a few reefs on the rum line, but by the afternoon, about 3:00, the wind started to die down and we were at Alligator Reef.  This was decision time... “go" or “no go.”  Being that the winds had dropped to just over 10 knots, with 15 knot gusts, the seas 2-4 feet, we decided to go for it.  We hammered down and hit the gulf stream.  It actually took several hours to get to the current, but once we hit the gulf stream our speed went from averaging 5 knots to averaging 7 knots.  As the night came on, the wind actually died down to a constant 10 knots.  Surprisingly, the seas were at 2-3 feet, with 5-10 knot winds, which stayed constant throughout the night.  We went into our passage mode of 1 hour on, 1 hour off shifts. The first 2 shifts you don’t sleep much, but after the 3^rd shift comes and you are on your rest period, you fall asleep quickly. One of our difficult situations has been dealing with our autopilot.  It is a Raymarine X5; however, it is very sensitive and was giving us fits on this trip; therefore, we were stuck with another of hand steering, which makes it difficult to stay on course.

We finally made it to South Riding Rock at about 8:30 a.m.  This was a welcome sight for us as it is amazing that you can go from 3,000 feet deep seas to a 15 foot bank within a mile.  This completed the first segment of the passage at a little over 112 miles.  Now came time for us to cross the Great Bahama bank. This is a huge flat sandy patch that runs about 50 miles to the Northwest Channel at the Tongue of the ocean.  We were blessed with flat seas; however, cursed with no wind.  Thus, we had to motor the whole way.  It was a beautiful run as you can see the bottom all the way.  With the sun shining and flat seas, there is nothing more liberating than sailing naked in beautiful waters.  We made Russell Beacon (no longer there, but still reflected on the chart books) at 3:00 pm.  We made the decision that we would anchor on the bank at the Northwest Beacon for the night before venturing onto Chub Cay.  The idea of being in the tongue of the ocean at night and not knowing where we were going was not on our fun meter.  We hit the northwest beacon (which isn’t there either) at 6:00 pm.  Just as we were preparing  to set anchor, we looked to the north only to see a northern front bearing down on us hard.

South Riding Rock
 

Crystal clear water of the Bahama bank
 

Beautiful weather on the Bahama banks

 

The decision was made to set a second anchor on the stern just in case the first one failed to hold.  The bow anchor was let out with 150 feet of all steel chain rode and the stern anchor with 100 feet of rope rode.  Being that we are still learning what to do, an all chain rode anchor without a snubber is not a good idea in 3-5 foot seas.  

 

*Note to self: Make anchor snubber like Butch has on their boat.

 

After a rocky night, we awoke to find the anchors had held, but the boat had bounced miserably all night long.  As the sun rose, we heard a crackle on the VHF radio of two boats talking, with one of them being the s/v Sanctuary.  We weren’t sure whether this was the same boat that was with us in Boot Key Harbor so we took a chance and hailed them on the VHF.  It was them.  They were headed to Chub Cay.  After a few minutes of talking with them, we decided we would try to catch up to them.  They were a good hour ahead of us.  We weighed anchor, which was very difficult with the amount of rode we had out and we were pulling against a 15 knot head wind.  Sherry did an excellent job winching in the stern anchor first.  Jim  climbed onto the bow and winched in the chain rode anchor, which was quite a chore.  We were off and running with a pleasant sail all the way to Chub Cay, which we made in 3 hours.  We had heard that Chub Cay was not cruiser friendly so we made the decision to head to Frasiers-Hog Cay to stay at the Berry Islands Club.  It may sound very posh to say were are staying at the Berry Islands Club, but don’t be misled.  It is however for the Bahamas, a very nice place to stay.  We hailed the Berry Island Club at Noon and were met at the dock by Howard, the operator of the club, along with David and Pat from the s/v Sanctuary.

The Channel leading up to the Club is quite shallow and littered with numerous sandbars.  This meant Sherry on the bow, shouting directions to Jim on which path to take.  It is very true what they say in the chart books, “stick with the green water.”  We tied off to the dock.  We were very happy this passage was over and we were officially in the Bahamas.  The next passage of any length will be to Nassau.

Preparing to Leave the States

The time has come for us to prepare for our passage to the Bahamas.  A small weather window has opened so we are going to take advantage of it.  There have been a number of boats that have left the past few days.  We think it is a good time for us to leave as well.  One of the things holding us back was getting the proper boat documentation.  We finally received our paperwork and the boat is now properly documented with the US Coast Guard. 

 

We didn’t fully provision the boat in Galveston as we knew we would have the opportunity to do so in Florida.  This meant for a huge grocery bill and a whole lot of bags needing to be dinghyed from shore to the boat.  Hindsight is always 20/20 and it probably would have been better to have provisioned in Galveston, but we were able to get it done.

A few of our staples

 

Particularly hard was saying “Goodbye” to new friends.  We met a wonderful couple, Butch and Susan, that made it VERY hard to say, “See you later.”  We had spent a lazy afternoon with them at Sombrero Beach, followed by drinks and dancing at Sombrero Key, while being entertained by Gary Diamond and watching the locals go wild.  Another night, everyone brought an appetizer and drinks and watched the annual Harbor Lighted Boat Parade, once again followed by dinghying to Sombrero Key to be entertained by Gary Diamond.  Our departure dinner with them was a wonderful night out, eating pizza and talking about the upcoming trip.  Susan, “The Hostess with the Mostest,” was wonderful and even made us homemade cookies, which we were so thankful for and devoured during our passage.

Wednesday morning, it was time to leave.   Butch and Jim hoisted the dinghy motor back onto the stern rail and secured the dinghy on the bow while Sherry was below securing EVERYTHING so we didn’t have a repeat of the Gulf of Mexico crossing.  We made way to fuel at 9:00 am., and were met in the harbor by Butch and Susan bringing us sausage biscuits for breakfast.  We are not sure of their travel plans, but have greatest hopes of meeting up with them sometime in the islands.

A shout out goes to Marathon’s Boot Key Harbor City Marina.  They are very welcoming to the cruising community.  Their facilities are excellent and their staff is really nice and quite accommodating. Boot Key Harbor is centrally located so we could get to our favorite store, West Marine, and spend more money.  There are also a couple of grocery stores, Kmart and pretty much anything else you could want in town.  We are going to miss our Tuesday Night Cruiser’s Forum, where we all gathered at the Tiki Hut to discuss different cruising interests.  We are really going to miss our 9:00 a.m. Cruiser’s Net, which is like a soap opera first thing every morning, but it worked out really well as we were able to exchange a diesel fuel can for a gas fuel can, amongst ridding ourselves of other items we originally thought we could not live without while pocketing a few dollars to cover the cost of laundry ($3.00 to wash, $3.00 to dry each load).  Water is at a premium in southern Florida.

With preparations complete, we made the turn to Hawk Channel at 11:00 am. And set our route at 75°. 

Next waypoint… South Riding Rocks

 

An Ode to Gilligan’s Island

 

Many people ask us how we keep ourselves entertained in the evenings with no television.

We are lucky to have a WiFi amplifier which allows us the internet; however, you can only surf for so long.

So, prior to heading out, we sorted through all of our movies and put them in a folder CD/DVD case. We ended up with 3 of them chock full of movies.

However, one thing that has become a ritual for us is our nightly 2 episodes of Gilligan’s Island. We had downloaded 3 complete seasons of it. Its amazing how that show, which started way back in the early 60’s, is still fun to watch. What is even funnier is that we know them almost all by heart….thanks to the televion Gods for sindication. And, YES, Mary Ann is still hotter than Ginger - she is just so innocent. It’s fun to walk down memory lane when you see the cast covered in feathers and being mistaken for life on Mars. We do find it a bit ironic that our favorite show is about shipwrecked castaways and we are watching the show on a sailboat.

Because of the energy management that has to occur when not being on shore power, we have found the best practice for us is to watch the movies on a laptop. During the day, when there is energy being made, we make it a point to charge up the laptops and anything else. Once night falls, so do the volts stored in the shipboard battery bank. We also have a set of externial speakers that run off of AAA batteries. These also are rechargable. Thus, when the sun is shinning and the wind is blowing, we get a CHARGE out of it… J

 

Off the Hook

How different can your life be?  Going off the hook and living a cleaner, greener, life has its challenges, but what an amazing way to live!  The s/v Dulcinea is equipped with solar panels, wind generator, water maker and solar oven that allow us to be as self sufficient as we choose. 

We have now been "off the hook" for the past 2 weeks, making our own energy while maintaining a regimented vigil on our usage.

Today, I was able to rid myself of more "stuff."  My Oster electric tea kettle, electric fry skillet and coffee pot, YES, the coffee pot is gone.  I have conquered the challenge of making a GOOD pot of coffee on the stove!

Day by day, we are getting closer to actually fitting on the boat.  Still a few more things to sort through and, although it has taken us a month, we are settling in quite well.

It's off to watch another episode of Gilligan's Island on our solar charged laptop before bedtime.

Waking to 70° temperatures spurs lots of energy for working on our boat projects.  After coffee with our neighbors, we managed to cross off a few of them today.

Jim tackled installing our new Electrosense level indicator on the fresh water tank.  Now, we know exactly how much fresh water we have (or do not have).  It works GREAT and he found the perfect place to install the monitor.

 

 

 

 

 During our Gulf crossing, the portholes were leaking so my project was to remove and install new porthole gaskets.  After reading posts on the internet, I was a little skeptical to attempt this project; however, I found it quite easy to do.

 

 

After a hard day of tackling boat projects, we rewarded ourselves with stone crab claws, shrimp, an amazing lobster reuben sandwich and cold beer at Pincher’s Perch.

A cup of tea in the cockpit while watching the full moon rise was a nice way to end the day.  The wind is howling and it has begun to rain so it won’t take long for the rocking of the boat to lull us to sleep.

Good night All!

Sailing Key West to Marathon

Although we were only supposed to spend a week in Key West getting things squared away with the boat from the Gulf passage, we ended up spending 10 days there due to strong winds keeping us from sailing north to Marathon.  On Friday, the winds finally looked favorable for a passage.  It is about 56 miles from Key West to Marathon, which could be done in a day; however, with this being our first sail on our own, we decided to split it into a 2-day sail.  We left Key West at 8:00 am and headed out the channel in progress to sail Hawk Channel up to Marathon.  From looking at the charts, a good stopping point for us would be Big Pine Key; specifically, New Foundland Harbor Key.  When we hit Hawk Channel, we found favorable winds from the Northwest at 15-20 knots.  This allowed us to make good time on the sail and arrive in Big Pine Key just after 1:00 pm.  One major obstacle that slowed our sail time was dodging the lobster/crab pots.  Some would be in a straight line, which we could sail against.  Others were scattered, which affected our point of sail.

 

 

New Foundland Key turned out to be a beautiful anchorage that was 6’ deep and well protected, but being that we had never used the anchor nor even set the anchor on this boat, we were two nervous little ticks in a flea bath. Thankfully, we set the anchor, let out the rode, and it held. But, being unsure of the holding power, we decided to sleep in the cockpit that night, in which we froze our butts off. Waking up to a beautiful sunrise, we made way at about 8:00 am. Hitting Hawk Channel, we found favorable winds again; however, even more lobster/crab pots this time. We did make good time to Marathon and pulled in before 1:00 pm.

 

  

X marks the spot...Marathon

Marathon has a terrific mooring ball field, which is very cruiser friendly and the lady on the other end of the VHF was quite colorful while directing us to our mooring ball. 

 

 

 Now, we are all settled in for 2 weeks of relaxation and final boat work.

Community Park Lighting Ceremony

A Week in Key West

After being tethered to the boat for 10 days, we have now spent a week in Key West regrouping and making repairs to the boat and are now officially on island time…make a repair, go to Mallory Square to watch street entertainers and the famous sunset…make a repair, have dinner at Salute’s and attend a reggae concert at Higg’s Beach…make a repair, head to Hog’s Breath Bar for fish & chips, beer and a live band…make a repair, tour the Shipwreck Museum and have another beer…make a repair, shop Duvall St. and people watch…make a repair, take a nap.  This is living!

Sunset at Mallory Square

Key West Museum of Art & History

 

Shipwreck Treasures Museum

 

Welcome to Mallory Square

  

Conch Harbor provided us with most everything we needed including great entertainment and dining, but nothing is cheap in Key West.  The nearest grocery store is miles away, over a bridge, so you must take a taxi to grocery shop.  As we opted to dine out instead of hailing a $25 roundtrip cab to the grocery store, we found this to be a nice vacation spot, but it did not fit well in our cruiser’s budget.  We had what we were told to be the best fish sandwich around…$13.00 for a Mahi Mahi sandwich with mayo, lettuce and Cuban bread.  No fries, no chips. Other than the price, nothing was outstanding about the sandwich. We did have a Cuban Pulled Pork sandwich at the Cuban Queen Coffee Shop that was outstanding and leftovers made a great frittata for breakfast the next morning. At $5.95, we should have stuck with that.  But, then again, we were in beautiful Key West.

Let us not forget we were only 90 miles from Cuba standing in a long line to have our picture taken next to the famous Southernmost Point buoy marker.

While we waited our turn, we were serenaded with Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" by a talented acoustic guitar player who turned to Jim and said, “Have you heard of Don Quixote?”  How ironic was that?  Our sailboat is the Dulcinea, so named after Don Quixote’s imaginary love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMA-_ElvKsk