cruising life

Excitement in the Anchorage….

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By the end of our stay in Marsh Harbour, the anchorage grew very crowded. Many boats were hiding out from the winter north-easters, and waiting for the swells in the ocean outside of the Sea of Abaco to decrease before heading south. Exactly what we were doing! And with these winds coming from an unusual direction, the popular anchorages outside the harbors didn’t provide enough protection to be safe and comfortable. Mike and I took Sanitas out of the harbor after 8 day’s to attempt to head south to Little Harbor, but the winds were higher than predicted, the waves even inside the reef were high and choppy, and the glimpse of the cut that we could see was a whipped cream froth of white waves and foam. So we turned around, and went back to Marsh Harbour for another 2 nights.

As we selected our anchor spot, and dropped the hook, we noticed many captains sitting in their cockpits watching the world go by with suspicion. We soon learned that the suspicion was warranted. The wind continued to increase, and rain started, so Mike and I hid below decks to enjoy our lunch in peace.

We tend to keep the VHF radio tuned to 16 (the hail and distress channel) or 68 (the Cruiser Net and ship-to-ship channel) as long as we hare making enough solar power to do so. Good thing too! Because our lunch was interrupted by calls of “You’re dragging anchor!” on 16, and blasts of an air horn alerting the entire anchorage to danger. Now of course Sanitas wasn’t dragging. Don’t be ridiculous! But a huge catamaran with no one aboard was no longer hooked, and was drifting unattended through the crowded field of boats.

Bob from Orion hailed us directly to let us know it was drifting right at Sanitas. Bob and the skipper from Compass Rose jumped in their dinghies to see if they could board the cat. Mike and I stood by on Sanitas, ready to fend her off if she drifted too close. Luckily, her anchor caught again before she ran into anyone. But now we had a catamaran much too close to our full-keeled monohull, and to several small motor trawlers. Each of these types of boats swing differently on anchor, and need to have space to swing fully and safely as the wind changes direction.

Bob managed to reach the owner of the catamaran, Southern Passage, who was ashore on Great Abaco, and received permission to board her and power up her engine in order to move if necessary. So the excitement ended well. Bob and Mike got a tour of a gorgeous, 50 foot by 26 foot catamaran (we learned she charters for $15,000 a week!) and had beers with the captain after he arrived back at the boat and successfully moved her to a safer location and reset the anchor.

The winds died down completely at sunset, we we actually were able to put the adventure behind us and could go to sleep at night!

Great Sale and Fox Town

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Our trip through the northern Bahamas has been dictated by the winds. It’s tricky for a sail boat of our size and design to sail straight into the wind, and in this part of the world, the prevailing winds are easterlies. So … we motored across the Little Bahama Banks to Mangrove Cay, and then to Great Sale Cay, where the Northwest Harbor is very well protected from the easterly winds. Unfortunately, there’s not much else going on at Great Sale. It is a small, uninhabited island of mostly mangroves, without the gorgeous sandy beaches of tropical fantasies. On our first night there, we had a had a potluck on the beach and watched the sunset (and were feasted upon by sand fleas in the meantime). The dinghy ride back into the wind was enough of a wet and salty ordeal that we didn’t try THAT again!

After that, we just sort of hung out in the harbor, watched the weather, and waited for lighter winds.

Eventually, we got a bit of cabin fever. On our first attempt to leave Great Sale, Sanitas and Orion sailed and motored into the wind for three hours … and then calculated that at a pace that was slowing to less than 3 knots,we would never make it to the the next safe harbor before sunset, so we turned around and motored back with our tails between our legs. Disorder won the bet that we’d be back before lunchtime!

Two more days in the same harbor and we were getting even more stir crazy, so we took the next opportunity to sail and motor east to Foxtown on Little Abaco Island. You’ve already heard about that great adventure, running aground in the Fox Town Harbor! You’d have thought we arrived in New York City by our excitement to reach civilization! The town was about 3 blocks long, with one restaurant, two mini marts, and one very active (aka, loud) church. We walked the entire length, met all of the local hustlers, sampled the local rum and the cracked conch (made especially for Mike and me with rice flour because we are allergic to wheat), and headed back to our boats with grocery bags filled with lobster tails.

After sampling all the delights of Fox Town, we still needed a few basic things, such as water, fuel, and internet. So our next stop would be beautiful Green Turtle Cay…..

Clearing Customs

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The Bahamas has figured out how to make clearing customs easy. Just hand over a lot of money. In cash.

When we arrived at the Old Bahama Bay Marina at West End on Grand Bahama Island after an overnight sail from Miami, the captain and crew were tired, and tempers frayed. We timed our arrival for just after sunrise, so that we would have good visibility entering a new harbor, and just before the Customs office opened, so we could breeze through without much wait. But we didn’t think about the fact that it would be Saturday … of Presidents’ Day weekend ….

As our three sailboats slowly made our slow and dignified approach into the harbor, planning to tie up at the Customs Dock, a sudden hoard of small and agile go-fast fishing boats zoomed around us and claimed all the spots at the dock. They promptly started blaring dance music, stripping down to bikinis, and popping the top of beer cans. Oh. And jumped ahead of us in the Customs line. It was a bit of a shock to realize that the trip from Miami that had taken us about 15 hours, was also achievable on a small boat with 2 or 4 powerful motors in just a couple of hours. And that the huge Gulf Stream crossing that we had been thinking about for months could be performed as part of a one-day fishing / drinking party. Oh well. It puts things in perspective, and reminds us that sail people and motor people are different breeds! Capt Mike got his revenge in the Customs line when the kids from the fishing boats were talking about the cost of diesel, and when they asked how long Mike was staying in The Bahamas and he answered, “oh, at least three months.” 😎

We carry a waterproof document bag that contains all important paperwork: passports, ship’s registration with the US Coast Guard, insurance, etc. Mike learned some good lessons about how the clear Customs smoothly from our previous charters:

  • Dress neatly
  • Bring your own pen (really!)
  • Have all documents in order (one of the fishing boats forgot their registration)
  • Be polite
  • Know the fees and have money ready in cash

In The Bahamas, a cruising permit authorizing Sanitas to sail in the water of the Commonwealth for three months costs $300. We intend to get our money’s worth! Each member of the ship’s crew also gets approved by immigration to stay in the country for a certain period of time. I think they gave us six months. Probably hoping for another $300 cruising permit! While Capt Mike was standing in line, I took advantage of being tied to the dock to make coffee, empty trash and even take a quick shower, cheating just a little bit on our Customs quarantine status. Finally we were all cleared in and officially and could lower the yellow Q flag, and raise the Bahamas courtesy flag, and continue sailing east across the Little Bahama Bank!

Boat Show, Baby!

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The Miami International Boat Show is a completely different animal to the St Pete show. It is huge! And glitzy! And oozing money!

We scored free boat show tickets courtesy of Cruising Outpost Magazine, so, why not catch an Uber there from No Name Harbor? Took our picture with Bob Bitchin of Cruising Outpost.

Bought a new lightweight waterproof backpack from Gecko Designs. (Now I have to remember to use it, each time we climb into the dinghy of death)

And got lots of good swag: free hats, free bags ” Boat hair, don’t Care.” And drink samples. After a lunch at Whiskey Jack’s, we returned to our own reality on anchor at No Name Harbor.

Moon Over Miami

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I never intended to sail to Miami. I did my research, read the cruiser’s guides, and attended the boat show seminars. I decided that the best route to the Bahamas for Mike and me in our small boat, with our level of expertise, would be a daytime crossing to Bimini from Rodriguez Key in Key Largo.

But sailing had other plans.

If I did somehow end up near Miami, I never intended to pay to stay in Dinner Key, in Coconut Grove, just south of downtown Miami. Why would I, when we could stay in No Name harbor on Key Biscayne for free instead? That option is closer to our route, has a pristine anchorage in a state park with lovely beaches, bikes to rent, a snack bar, and palm trees. It would avoid the congestion and costliness of a major metropolitan area.

But sailing had other plans.

…

On the day that we sailed from Marathon to Rodriguez Key, winds were 15 to 20 knots, pretty much on our bow, and seas were 3 to 5 feet, with a high periodicity. That’s what sailors call “lively” conditions. Sanitas handled it well, but we definitely bashed into the waves all day long. And we observed that our top speed was reduced by almost 25% in those windward conditions. After successfully anchoring at Rodriguez right about at sunset, thoroughly tired of being tossed around, I entered our forward cabin to find everything had been soaked with sea water. The sheets on the new mattress were wet, my clothes in the cupboard were wet, my toiletries in the closet sat in a puddle, there was water on the floor in the salon, and ever a trickle in the food cupboard. It appears that as water came over the bow again and again all day long, some of that water was getting into the boat and flowing behind the headliner, coming out wherever it could find an escape route. There may have been some tears, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. We pulled everything out of the cabin, made piles of dry, damp, sort of wet, and toxic waste. Ate a can of soup for dinner, and passed out on the couch.

In the morning, we evaluated our options. It did not seem like a good idea to continue across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas without addressing the “water intrusion” (aka, leak) because we would be sailing to windward often on that trip. And supplies for a repair were more readily available and less costly in the US than they would be in The Bahamas. We seriously considered returning to Marathon to sort things out. I admit, it crossed my mind that we had had a good run, and that spending the winter on anchor in Key West wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. We watched our friends on Tapati and North Star raise anchor and head for Bimini without us.

We finally decided to continue making forward progress rather than retracing our steps. By sailing a 10-hour day to Miami, we could pick up a mooring ball at Dinner Key Marina and be within walking distance to West Marine, hardware stores, and more. But we would probably need to stay there for several days, because we’d miss the current weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream. The rest of our St Petersburg friends, on Orion and SE of Disorder, would probably also cross without us. Sanitas was on her own!