Fishing and Shopping
Dwayne and
Frank went fishing all day with a local guide, Lincoln Jones. He took them to an inlet at the north end of
Manjack Cay were they caught several dozen fish while anchored off some rocky
ledges. A dozen or so snapper were
caught at the first stop which was right off the tip of the cay. After fishing there for about an hour,
Lincoln moved the boat to the rocks on the other side of the cut and we caught
over 2 dozen yellow tale, some grouper which we tossed back as too small and
out of season. Dwayne hooked into what
Lincoln thought was a mackerel; however, once again, a shark took Neptune’s tax
and the line was severed as the shark devoured the fish.
New Plymouth
We rented a
golf cart and headed off to New Plymouth at the south end of the island. Most
of the vehicles on the road are golf carts which are convenient and much less
expensive than cars. We stopped at
several of the beaches facing the Atlantic just to see what they had to offer.
The settlement has a population of about 450. Our first stop was at the post
office to get stamps for post cards. We then visited each of the three grocery
stores to check availability of goods and compare prices. We also visited the
local museum, Vert’s Model Shop, the sculpture garden and two local
restaurants.
Moraine Cay to Green Turtle Cay
Moraine Cay to
Green Turtle Cay was another easy journey of about 35 miles. Again, it was a
beautiful day. We were doing fine until we tried to get into the harbor. It was low tide and most of the time, there
was less than a foot of water under our keel in the dredged channel. A sailboat
was aground just short of the marina and we had to stop to try to figure out if
we could get around her without going aground ourselves.
Great Sale Cay to Moraine Cay
We weighed
anchor at 0915 bound for Moraine Cay – a trip of about 35 miles. There was
enough wind to sail for much of the day but eventually, we had to run our
engines to get up enough speed to reach Moraine Cay before darkness.
Wet End to Great Sale Cay
We finally
got a decent weather window and departed the Old Bahama Bay Marina and
Resort. It was a bit breezy and getting
out of our slips required assistance.
Claus and two neighboring boaters came over to see us off. It took three
people each securing cleated lines to windward to keep us centered in the slip
as we backed out. Our bow blew off as soon as the bow line was released and we
ended up backing down the entire fairway and out into the turning basin before
we were able to get the bow back into the wind. The first challenge of the day
is behind us.
Porgies
Dwayne spent
most of the morning up-dating our iPad and iPhone apps. He called some friends
to get advice on how to get the laptop running again. Eventually, it was
revived. Thank goodness it is working again and we didn’t lose any data. It is a vital piece of equipment when it
comes to communications.
Lobster Night
It was windy, rainy and cool. We basically
hid out in Foreign Affair and passed
our time reading and napping. Carla and
Carol prepared a wonderful dinner of lobster with salad and Hawaiian
rolls. A local fellow catches the
lobster right off the beach and sells them to the cruisers in the marina. He
was asking $40 for a baker’s dozen. We ate them all in one sitting.
Freeport and Lucaya
The six of
us decided to go into Freeport and Lucaya to do some touring and stop in at a
Bahama Telephone Company (BTC) office to establish telephone service. We
already had a cell phone on BTC; however, we were having difficulty with
obtaining data service using the phone as a hot spot for our computer. Frank
and Carol had a phone but needed a new sim card for BTC. Claus and Marie needed
a cell phone and service. Claus arranged for us to have a rental car.
West End
Our first
morning in the Bahamas was as advertised in the travel guides. Sunny, warm and
with a slight breeze. After a leisurely breakfast, we wandered the grounds
exploring the marina and adjacent resort facilities. The nearest hammock hung
between two palm trees in less than 100 feet from our boat. The distance to the
beach is about a 100 yards. The resort has a wonderful pool, spa, fitness room,
lounge chairs for the pool and beach, kayaks, paddle boards, shuffle board,
volley ball, horse shoes, lawn chess and checkers for use by guests. Carla
learned a little about West End from Kenisha, who was tending a stall at the on-site
straw market. West End was hit really hard by Matthew and is still struggling
to rebuild.
Fort Lauderdale to West End
We slipped
off our mooring ball at 0230 and made the 0300 opening of the 17th
Street Bridge. It was an easy ride through the turning basin and out the ship
channel into the Atlantic. By 0330, Foreign
Affair was passing the Port Everglades harbor entrance light with Hakuna Matata close behind. The
autopilot course was set for 090 degrees, due East, and we were on our way to
the Bahamas.
Fort Lauderdale Las Olas Anchorage to Fort Lauderdale Municipal Moorings
Once again,
the sun was shining bright when we emerged from our cabin. A couple of the
boats anchored with us were gone when we looked around in the morning. They
most likely were well on their way to the Bahamas. Our phone rang at 0830. It was Frank and
Carol calling to let us know they were on their way with an expected arrival
time of shortly before noon. It was agreed that we would take moorings at the
municipal mooring field just south of the Las Olas Bridge. If the weather
forecast held, we would be off to the Bahamas before daybreak.
Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale
We woke up
to another great day. The sun was shining bright and there was a slight breeze
from the south. We originally planned to head down the ICW and anchor in Lake
Boca Raton for the night which would have put us about 20 miles north of Fort
Lauderdale. Carla made a wonderful breakfast of French toast, sausages, coffee
and juice. We were enjoying the morning
and trying to getting motivated to negotiate the next 30 miles of the ICW and a
sizable number of bridges when Carla suggested we go outside to Fort
Lauderdale. Doing so, we would arrive a day earlier than planned and avoid the
hassle of making timely arrivals at the close to 20 bridges between Fort Worth
and Fort Lauderdale. It was already 10 o’clock. We decided to go for it and
hoped we would arrive in Fort Lauderdale before dark. The anchor quickly was
raised and we were off out into the Atlantic.
Jensen Beach to Lake Worth
The wind was
significantly less today than yesterday. We had an easy run from Jensen Beach
Bridge to Lake Worth. The houses along the ICW are getting bigger and the
bridges more frequent. We only had one bridge delay today. The bridge tender
was being a jerk and said we missed his opening by a minute. There was no
traffic on the bridge and had he been a nice guy he would have opened the
bridge a minute late to let us through. We knew it wouldn’t help if we tried to
get him to let us pass. So, we just loitered before the bridge for a half hour
waiting for the next opening.
Vero Beach to Jensen Beach
Our run from
Vero Beach to Jensen Beach was very windy and a bit cool. We were happy to drop
anchor just north of the Jensen Beach Bridge and settle in for the night. We
initially tried to anchor south of the bridge, however, the wind was really
strong making this location unpleasant. We decided to move north of the bridge
hoping the bridge and shoreline buildings would give us some better protection.
We anchored near another boat, just east of the ICW channel. It was a little
better but not good there either. We laid out all of our chain and the anchor
held. The boat rocked a little throughout the night. We hoped the wind would
die down some by morning.
George and Ann Visit - Farewell Forest and Susan
George and
Ann of Valiant, a Tartan 3700 drove
down for a visit. We first met them in Annapolis during a preparatory seminar
for our SAIL ICW rally. We got to know them better during our weeks heading
south on the ICW last year. They have recently sold their house and are now
Florida residents. They keep Valiant
docked at the Stuart Loggerhead Marina which is located in the heart of a gated
community with superb amenities.
Amazon Delivers in time for Valentine's Day
Today was a
special day. The UPS driver dropped off half a dozen Amazon boxes. These were
last minute items we wanted or needed for our Bahamas trip. Carla’s Valentine’s
Day gift was among them. To help us catch our own fish so we don’t starve in
the Bahamas, we got some Penn Reel Grease, Reel Oil and Reel Cleaner. We also
got two books to help us learn how to catch and identify the fish we hope end
up on our dinner table. Carla was really excited about her Valentine’s gifts –
a great little Lewmar claw anchor and 100 feet of anchor line for the dinghy.
We don’t want the dinghy to get away from us in the Bahamas. We might also need
the anchor to keep us from being pulled out into the Atlantic Ocean should our
outboard motor stop running.
Forest - Susan and the Bahamas
We got up
late and had a leisurely breakfast. Our boat task for the day was installing
the second jerry can boards. It was an easier job than yesterday, because we
learned some from mounting the starboard side board. Also, we had all the parts we needed which
saved us a lot of time since we didn’t have to make another trip to the
hardware store. We stayed on the boat all day.
Farewell to Pearl, Grace and Silver Girl
We climbed
into the cockpit with our morning coffee at 0930 just in time to bid farewell
to Pete and Dianne on Pearl. They are
bound for the Florida Keys. We also noticed Kevin aboard Grace was sipping his coffee watching Pearl passing between us. Claus was busy raising his dinghy in
preparation to get underway. Within an hour both Grace and Silver Girl
were heading to the ICW. Grace traveling north
and Silver Girl south. We are anxious
to get going too. We’ll be here a few more days to allow Frank and Carol to
make their way across Florida and join us in Fort Lauderdale.
Grace and Silver Girl
Grace took the mooring next to us early in
the afternoon. Kevin and Debbie had just finished making a run back from the
Bahamas. They are cutting their Bahamian winter sojourn short so they can
attend a wedding. They are from Vermont and sail Lake Champlain during the
summer and cruise the Bahamas in the winter. We invited them over to visit and they
joined us for a couple of hours despite being tired.
Look See
The wind
shifted to the north and started to blow strong. A strong Nor’easter was
reaching us. We were glad we were far enough south not to experience the cold
while hearing about people in the Northeast digging out from under inches of
snow. We are in a well-protected mooring which makes it a comfortable situation
unlike what we experienced in St. Augustine last winter when the waves really
rocked the boat for 3 days during a winter Nor’easter there.
New Galley Pump
Dwayne took
to the bus again to get fuel filters for our Yanmar engine and the u-bolts and
other items not available at the hardware store we visited yesterday. He rode
on three different bus routes to get what we needed and was gone almost three
hours. At least the weather was nice but a little warm at 87 degrees for a
high. The breeze kept things cool.
Vero Beach
We slept
until after 9 and decided to go out for breakfast and try to pick up a few
things we needed at the hardware store. We caught the bus shortly after 10 and
stopped at The Lemon Tree Restaurant for breakfast. Dwayne had a wonderful ham,
swiss cheese, spinach and mushroom omelet with fries and orange juice. Carla
had pancakes which were more than she could handle. The Lemon Tree is a cute
place on Ocean Drive. It serves great food at reasonable prices which explains
why it is so busy. We’ll recommend it to others stopping at Vero.
Mounting the iPad Mini
Dwayne’s
project for the day was devising a way to mount an iPad Mini above our chart plotter
so we could simultaneously run our Navionics chart plotter and Garmin BlueChart.
It is generally accepted that the Navionics charts alone are insufficient for
navigating in the Bahamas due to inaccuracies in the Navionics chart database.
The Garmin chart data is significantly more accurate and recommended by
cruisers who are veterans of sailing in Bahamian waters. The Explorer Charts
remain the standard for paper charts covering the Bahamas and are considered
the authoritative source for all cruisers. So, we’ll be running two electronic
chart plotters in addition to using the Explorer paper charts in our efforts to
stay off the reefs and shoals as we travel from island to island this winter.
Radar Reflector and Super Bowl
Forest dropped
by shortly after breakfast. He knew we had to go aloft to re-install our radar
reflector. He brought “Mighty Mo” with him to help make the job easier. “Mighty Mo” is a Milwaukee right angle drill
adapted with a bit designed to fit a winch socket. Instead of having to
manually turn the winch with a winch handle, “Might Mo” could do the job with
the push of a button.
Outboard Gremlins and Sundowners
We slept in
and hadn’t even started drinking our first cup of coffee before we were hailed.
Loren came over to check out our outboard motor. He saw us rowing the dinghy
when the outboard didn’t start and said he’d help us troubleshoot the problem.
Dwayne stood by, watched and learned as Loren pulled the spark plugs to see how
they looked. All ok there. He drained some fuel from the carburetor, checked
the shift lever movement for proper position in neutral and checked the choke.
All looked fine. We guess some gunk must have worked its way through the system
or maybe there was a little water in the fuel. He showed us how to clear the
system if we flooded it attempting to get the engine started. Since his visit,
we haven’t had any further problems. We still don’t know what caused the engine
to stop running and fail to restart. We really need a reliable outboard in the
Bahamas. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
Provisioning and a Drive to West Palm Beach
Pearl arrived last night. They will be in
Vero Beach for a few days waiting on parts and working on boat projects. We
still had a rental car and we invited them to join us on our provisioning run.
We headed to the Yanmar dealer to order parts for our engines. Other stops
included West Marine, Home Depot, Walmart and Publix. The car’s trunk was full
when we returned to the marina.
Provisioning - Vero Beach
February 1 & 2: We got a rental car for to help with provisioning. Stops included Ace Marine Diesel, Complete Marine Services, Home Depot, Sturgis Lumber & Hardware, Walmart, Walgreens and our bank. We criss-crossed much of Vero Beach in the process. We also made stops at Arby’s and the Blue Agave Restaurant for lunches.
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