Monday 29 January 2018

26.37 nautical miles of hell!



OK – it’s official – we’re certifiably crazy! Or else the weather forecasts here, from all three of our sources, are lying through their teeth.

As we prepared to sail from West End to Ocean Reef Marina near Freeport, we heard, and I quote: “15-20 knots of wind from the Southeast, 1 metre waves, cloud and sun”. “Perfect”, we thought, “let’s go”! We had some trouble getting out of the slip, as the wind was howling, and kept blowing the bow of the boat in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go (might have been a hint!). But, after a bit of a twist to the bar-b-que when it hit a post, we managed to exit the marina, and looked forward to a leisurely 4-hour sail to our next port of call.

OMG – not!! 10-15 foot waves, on our side – crashing over the bow and into our cockpit.  We even had the rail in the water at times – pretty scary! Winds that gusted to 40k (gale force) and torrential rain twice, as well as thunder, for four and a half miserable hours. Below, the boat was in total disarray, and above, we were soaked, shivering and praying that we’d make it safely to the Ocean Reef Harbour.

But Sea Change is a very seaworthy boat, and make it we did, finally, coasting through the shallow entry with less than a foot of water beneath the keel. Six people came to greet us and help us tie up the boat – curious about these crazies out on that water today. “There’s another pair of crazies following us in,” we informed our welcoming party about the friends we had sailed with today, and they invited us all to a free dinner and Bahama Mama drinks in the bar. “OK”, we said, gratefully, as we shed our very wet clothes and dashed to dinner, having not eaten since breakfast. I sucked back that drink like I had just walked the desert J.

I think I’m done with the heroics – we’ll wait out the weather now until the next REALLY CALM day to make our 10-hour crossing to the Berry Islands! 






Sunday 28 January 2018

Goodbye to West End


Our “sundowner” last evening with 14 people (2 from Germany) was a fitting end to our stay here in West End, while we waited out the cold front this past week.

It’s been delightful – including a visit to Port Lucaya by bus to sort out my Bahama sim card and check out the straw market. Enroute, I discovered that one of the women I was hanging out with was a close friend for 30 years of my former assistant in the MCATD program – small world! We’ll probably sail tomorrow with Sheila and her husband and see if we can “buddy boat” with them on the next long crossing (10 hours) to the Berry Islands.

Another benefit of this location has been the local fishermen, keeping us supplied with fresh lobster tails ($4.00 each) – pic below of one delicious dinner J.


So tomorrow we’re off to Ocean Reef – about 30 miles away, to prepare for the big jump to the Berries. After that it’s one more biggish jump to Nassau, and then, hopefully, an easy meander South along all the small islands to our destination in George Town, Exumas.








Wednesday 24 January 2018

We Made it to the Bahamas!!


Wow – the power of the sea! We started out in the dark at 5:30 a.m. yesterday from West Palm Beach/Lake Louise to head towards West End in the Bahamas – the last leg of our Florida journey.

First off, we encountered an electrical problem. The day before, Jeff had, with much effort, groaning and swearing, installed a new part on our autopilot – critical for a 9-hour trip on open ocean. Auto was working fine, but somehow the chart plotter (which gives us our direction for navigation) was now backwards – with north and south reversed. This made navigation out of sight of land somewhat awkward. And when we saw many boats heading in a different direction from ours, we were a little concerned that we might end up in Africa J.

Suddenly we spotted one other boat sailing parallel to us. With some detective work, we ascertained that these were our friends from Mimico on Spar Trek – so we knew we were heading in the right direction.

Much relieved, we relaxed into the 9-hour journey on 7-foot waves, on our nose, in a very “confused” sea – with nothing in sight but Spar Trek, which quickly outpaced us, being a much larger boat. We rocked and rolled as the waves tossed us around like a toy boat in a washing machine.


The result was lots of sea water over the deck, and into the accidentally left open hatch in the head, with the contents of the boat strewn hither and thither. But my captain navigated us perfectly (despite the upside-down chart plotter) into a beautiful little Bahamian bay, in which was located the Old Bahama Bay Resort and Marina. We checked into customs without a hitch and then feasted on our first (but definitely not last) fresh conch salad. Welcome to the Bahamas!!

















Sunday 21 January 2018

False Alarm!

We thought we might make the great escape to the Bahamas at 5:00 tomorrow morning - but for various reasons it's not happening yet. The wind hasn't calmed enough, our friends haven't arrived to make the crossing with us, and our autopilot isn't fixed yet.

So here we sit at anchor, looking at a lovely partial moon, and sipping gin and coconut water - not too shabby, even if it is still in Florida!

Saturday 20 January 2018

A Rough End to a Good Day

We spent yesterday meandering down the ICW - all the way to our final Florida destination - Lake Worth - where we'll hopefully cross to the Bahamas in a day or two, weather permitting (YAY!!).

As we moved further south we saw signs of increasing wealth and huge homes, each with a yacht parked on the water nearby. There were many lift-bridges ... "sailing vessel Sea Change, Southbound, requesting passage" - with a parade of boats behind us, all heading to the same place.

All went well, until we reached the Marina in West Palm Beach, where will filled up with diesel and headed to our slip for the night. That's when calamity struck ... apparently, the mechanic who worked on our boat last year had not tightened up the nuts on the top of the fuel tank below, allowing fuel to flow directly into the aft cabin and out into the galley. Everything was covered with pink diesel and stinking of fumes!!

After two hours of sopping up the worst of it, we went to bed exhausted, and this morning will try to finish the job. Not exactly the way we had planned to celebrate our arrival here! Boats ....









A Close Call – and An Impressive Reversal!

(Written 2 days ago)

We woke up to absolutely frigid weather this morning (0 celsius), with a howling wind from the North. So we delayed our departure to let things warm up a bit, and then left for the next leg of our journey at 1:30 p.m.

A cool four hours on the water were uneventful – except for one scary moment. We were trying to motor under a lift bridge, and circling to wait for it to open. The bridge operator warned us not to come too close, because of strong currents. Just as she said it, the currents started pulling us toward the bridge – which hadn’t lifted yet!! Yikes - a dismasting was not in our plans for the day…

But my Captain saved us by skillfully reversing the boat, as he couldn’t turn it around in the wicked current. Then, thankfully, the bridge lifted and we were able to sail through – with a commendation from the bridge operator on the VHF radio, saying with a laugh – “impressive reversal”.

Suffice it to say that was enough excitement for one day – we were happy to set our anchor at Jensen Beach anchorage a couple of hours later, as the sun was setting.


By the way – the first photo below is not us – thank God! Another sad remnant of the hurricanes here last Fall.









Thursday 18 January 2018

Feels like we’re Cruising Now


Two beautiful sunny days in Vero Beach – this is beginning to feel more like cruising and less like just surviving J.

We’re only one stop from our final Florida destination now, so yesterday was provisioning to get ready for crossing the Gulf Stream – probably early Monday morning (ie: 5:00 am).

Two nights ago night we stayed in a lovely anchorage near the marina – and last night we were at the marina dock. There’s a free bus into town each hour for trips to Publix (food store) and West Marine, so all very convenient.

Last evening we had a “sundowner” on our friends’ boat – 8 of us in their Jeanneau 45, with lots of room to spare in the cockpit. And we heard our first sunset conch-blowing of the season. This feels more like it!


Addendum – I just left the boat and it’s FREEZING outside again – a cold north wind and about 6 degrees celcius - sheesh!!