September 8, 2019

I'll bet you've been wondering where we've disappeared to.  Well, let's see where we left off.  Oh yes!  Through Ancestry we had made a connection to Dale's father's side of the family and due to a red light spotted in the garage, he was on his way to yet another project in the house before he continued on his journey to making our boat the best that it can be.

As luck would have it, on the family front, his cousin Ken called one day and introduced us to his brother, James, who we had a nice conversation with.  We concluded that there was yet another cousin named Alice who kept up with such things and might possibly have a photo of his father.  A few e-mails back and forth and Eureka!! She did!  Not only did she have a photo, she sent it to us.  We didn't even wait to open it in the house.

Years ago when I first married Dale, his mother had shown me a small unfocused snapshot of his father standing by a car.  My recollection was that Dale's sister Terri favored him but I didn't see any resemblance to Dale.  The photo that Alice sent us was a large professional black and white shot of him.  It was sharp and clear.  Undeniably, Terri looked exactly like him.  Now - I could see that Dale had his nose and possibly his eyes (although the entire family claims that Dale has his mother's eyes).  It was an odd feeling trying to peer through the years to make a connection.  Alice also sent a note with some information about his father, along with a memory of her meeting Dale when he was a toddler.  I found the note as precious as the photo.  I'm sure once Dale has a chance to sit for more than 5 minutes without falling asleep from sheer exhaustion, there's another telephone call in the future.

Forward cabin

On the house front, Dale was right,  There was something wrong with the water heater.  A quick service call later, a faulty sensor was replaced, the red light went out and Dale was free to dig out his table saw and go to work recreating a new overhead for the forward cabin.  Once he was done with the wood portion, I went to work covering one side with headliner material and the other side with insulation, we installed it with hardly any salty language, the porthole was rebedded, trim pieces added and we proclaimed the front cabin complete. Now Dale can put all his tools, spare parts, bits and bobs for fixing things in cupboards without storing things in boxes and bags on the bunk and rifling through every last one of them for something he needs - right now! - or worse yet, going out to buy 2 more because he can't find the one he's looking for.   I'm happy with the result. 

"Library"

I'm sure, if you're adept at reading between the lines, there is the possibility that I may offer random thoughts to my Tweaker-in-Chief for his opinion on whether the effort required is worth the net gain in the end.  Some of these random thoughts are about what I want to do but his assistance is needed in clearing a path.  Such as: I knew he had plans to run cable for a new satellite telephone through the aft cabin which necessitated tearing it apart to do so.  My observation was, once the forward cabin was completed, the aft cabin showed its age, so why not take advantage of it being completely torn apart to re-carpet it too.  My daughter and I had already re-carpeted one side of the boat 2 years ago, so the only parts not rejuvenated at this point was the aft cabin and what I affectionally call the library (its a small area at the base of a couple of steps that has shelves holding our logs and cruising guides) and low and behold, it had a broken board.  Dang! That probably should be repaired as its only going to get worse over the next two years.  And since you have to fix that board, why don't you take out all the rest and I'll re-carpet behind them as well.   OK, maybe I added a week to our list of things to do, but the boat looks great now and he was going to tear up that cabin anyway.

Aft cabin

I did make it up to him though.  Some of the things on his list, I either did myself (organizing all of the various nuts, bolts, screws, washers, O-rings, hose clamps, etc., into a case for hardware and a case for plumbing.  Each of these cases contained individual boxes which separated its contents according to width, length, thread size, circumference, or what looked like the same gizmo) or I hired it out (he was going to open up the stairs on both sides to access some void areas and he was going to put sliders in a cabinet underneath the chart table for me to put my cooking supplies in like salt, pepper, sugar, flour, spices, etc.)  The guy I hired came with specialized tools and opened up the stairs and added the sliders in a couple of hours. I made him promise to never show those tools to Dale as the boat was already starting to list in that direction.  He'll come back later this week to finish putting in the floors for the accessed areas.  So I think I saved Dale a week there.

During all of this commotion, Dale gets a message on his cell from a woman named Cindy, not only calling him by name but "dear," wanting to get together for dinner if he's available.  Normally, I, like most women, would have my "Spidey senses" going into hyper overdrive except that he's having me listen to the voice message and asking if, first, can I understand what's being said and second, have any idea who it might be.  It took a couple of replays, but my first impression turned out to be exactly who I thought it was. However, it took a call to Robbie, his sister in Oregon to confirm that yes, Cindy, his sister Terri's best friend in California, now lived in Florida and had called a few days earlier to get his phone number.  Whew!  OK, now he felt it safe to return the call.  We made arrangements to meet Cindy and her husband, Larry, the following day and had a great time catching up on the 13 or so years that had lapsed since we last saw her.


Now, back to work!  Dale had seen that a couple of engine mounts on our generator were showing signs of age and rust and thought it best to swap them out before we leave.  NexGen, the generator maker, just happens to be located in Jacksonville, so we made a short trip north to drop in on them to pick up 4 replacements (since you might as well change them all if you have to change 2).  They were great and really knew their stuff.  Dale explained what we were doing and our big plans to travel.  They made suggestions as to what specialty spare parts he might want to consider taking with him in case of emergency and offered that the beauty of their design was that most parts could be replaced easily at any hardware store.  Then, we were off and running.

If you've seen the movie "Martian" then you know where the line "science the shit out of it" comes from.  Dale was trying to prepare the removal and replacement of the generator engine mounts ahead of his buddy, Gerry (aka Tinkering Consultant,) arriving in town from Tasmania.  The last time these guys "scienced" things, Gerry had arranged various halyards, hoists, pullies, and frames to remove and replace his entire generator out of the cockpit, down the side of his boat to the bow, across to the finger pier and onto the dock.  Once done, the new one came off a handcart dolly on the dock, to the bow of his boat, down the side of the boat and into the cockpit where they would partially disassemble it in order to move it into where it belonged and then reassemble it in place.

The Tweaker-in-Chief was not to be outdone.  He made a frame to center the spinaker halyard over the tiny opening (as in no room to move) prior to it being lowered into the hole where the generator lived.  Chains would be attached to the generator and a pully attached to the side of the boat to keep it all centered as it was being raised.  One would crawl into the hole with the generator, it would be hoisted a few inches, and then whoever was in the hole would remove and replace the 4 engine mounts.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Gerry arrived, we picked him up at the airport, let him sleep off a bit of jetlag and then made our way to the boat on what happened to be one of the hottest days in Florida.  Temps were in the high 90s with the heat index well over 100.  Dale went into the hole, Gerry positioned the frame, I lowered the halyard from the cockpit and we tried to raise it.  Oops, something wasn't allowing it to move, he wants to take off a hose.  Dale yells, Gerry relays, I go running for the right size wrench, and after a bit, we start the same procedure again.  All stop! This time its me, I yell to Gerry, he translates to Dale and Dale looks for what's holding up progress again.  This time he thinks its a busbar of little color coded electrical cables.  Dale yells, Gerry relays, I go running for a cellphone to take photos of the color coded cables and his entire tool kit - as my mother didn't raise no fool - and bottles of water as we're all pouring sweat by this time.  While the guys are trying to sort out the cables, I head out to the car for a couple of umbrellas and cable tie them to the lifelines in an effort to keep some of the heat from beating down on them.  Then I run an extension cord out so they can plug in a portable fan.  We try again.  This time Dale is able to see that we don't have 4 engine mounts, we have 8. Four inside holding the generator to the sound enclosure, 4 underneath the sound enclosure holding it to the hull with 2 metal slats holding the sound enclosure to the 4 below and all 8 mounts are a corroded mess and need to be replaced.

Dale's getting dizzy, so Gerry goes into the hole and tries to get to the various mounts.  Its becoming clear that they are going to have to remove the generator and sound enclosure in order to access all of the mounts.  They first try to lift the whole package up as one, then they decide to separate one from another and take them completely out of the hole to work on.  That means removing all the hoses, connections, vents, cables, everything! No easy task and it seems as if it is getting hotter.



They take turns in the hole and at each change of shift, I alternate water with Gatoraide for each.  During one of the breaks, we discuss whether a tarp I keep in the car might provide some needed shade.  While they keep taking turns in the hole, I jerry-rig the tarp over their heads connecting it to whatever I can find with whatever I can find.  They say the tarp helps funnel what little wind there is through their work area and is helping.  They move the fan to inside the hole.

After much salty language, they finally get the generator disconnected and we begin to hoist it out of the hole until the torque on the winch is more than I can muscle through.  Gerry and I change places and he is able to power through the last turns to get the monster out of the hole and onto the deck.  We cover the dang thing up and call it a day.  We're all exhausted.

The next day is even hotter.  We start with the trip to NexGen for the 4 additional engine mounts and since, they are going to take it out of the hole completely, they might as well take the opportunity to change the V-belt and impeller.  In the process, we lose Gerry within their walls.  He's in hog heaven.  They tell him a couple of "secrets" to changing various belts and had no problem answering all of his technical questions.  We swing by the local West Marine to pick up vent and water hoses (because as long as its out, you might was well change these too) and head back to the boat.

Dale in the Hole

While the Tinker Twins discussed their plan of attack, I hung the tarp again.  This time I ran a line from forestay to standing rigging pushing it up as high as I could reach and then using tent clips, from lifelines to the camber spar cover.  In other words, I pitched a tent over their entire work area.  It catches the breeze and is high enough not to rest on their heads.  Again, they take turns working in the hole trying to loosen the stubborn sound enclosure with penetrating oil, salty language and the occasional swing of a hammer.

Finally, they are able to dislodge the final screw/bolt to find that the two metal bars connecting the lower engine mounts to the hull and sound enclosure had corroded almost to the breaking point.  It was a good thing they had taken the time to break the whole thing down to parade rest to find all of the problems, as we would have been hard pressed to find replacements in some of the countries we'll be visiting when it broke during transit; and, there was no doubt, it would have broken.  As it was, unless NexGen happened to carry the bars, it would be a custom aluminum fabrication.

Luck was with us on the next blistering day and our 3rd trip to NexGen had us walking out with 2 shiny new aluminum bars with holes predrilled to the exact size.  I pitched my tent again and then watched as they reassembled everything back together.  It seemed rather simple from my perspective.  They were like two surgeons hovering over their patient:  "A #13 wrench" "A #9 socket."  Soon they were ready to move their patient to recovery; new water hoses pre-attached and dangling, new vent hoses standing by, screwdriver, wrenches, and socket sets all neatly laid out in front, and by mid afternoon we were carefully hoisting it back up and millimeter by millimeter lowering it into position.  Another flurry of exchanging tools back and forth and then . . . where's that picture of the color coded wires?  My duty as scrub nurse had me running for the cell phone, locating the photo, enlarging the details as much as possible and then handing the phone down into the hole.



             




[The sound of crickets.]

Although the Tweaker-in-Chief /Head Surgeon had thought to take the photo, he hadn't thought to label each wire.  Process of elimination only takes you so far, then you have to dig out the wiring diagram and your multimeter.  Once the various selections were made, I was instructed to stand by inside the boat turning the main power switch on/off and then various other little switches as instructed but I was to be quick to flip it off at a moments notice.  Keep in mind that the main power switch is located deep inside a cabinet and all the other switches are located on the outside of the cabinet.  OK.  Ready!  Main power on. Check.  Main power off, check.  Main power on, check. OK, now try to start the genset.  It starts!!  No arcs; no explosions. Success!  Everyone loves it when a plan comes together.  The Tweaker-in-Chief and Tinkering Consultant are patting each other on the back and in general, yucking it up, having a grand 'ol time.  They let it run for a period of time and then instructed me to shut it down.  I no sooner touch the toggle than they are both screaming and yelling stop! stop! stop!  Shut down the main power!  Alright, already!  I dang near punctured a lung trying to get back into that cabinet.

The Tinker Twins

After a short, but intense interrogation, they conclude that I did not hit the wrong switch but that one of the wires isn't in the right spot.  They consult the wiring diagram again and then, in an act of desperation, agree to call NexGen for their thoughts on the matter.  One of the first clues comes about after NexGen reviews the photo of the wires we text to them.  There shouldn't be an orange wire!  Someone, somewhere had worked on the genset before and used unauthorized colors!  They can't instruct with any certainty now, but offer a few suggestions.  The Tinker Twins go to work tracking down the problem.  Yep sure enough, wires coming out of the boat change colors (there's a splice in them covered within a run) before entering the generator.  Once the Twins figure that out, they are able with the multimeter to connect them to the proper spot and we test it again.  This time it starts and stops as intended.  Also, this time the celebration is decidedly more reserved with a contented sigh of relief.

A project that started out as needing a day, maybe two, has now taken the better part of a week to complete and Gerry has his own boat in Ft. Pierce to work on.  In fact, he has two massive electric winches to install and Dale has promised to assist when Gerry has everything on board and "scienced" out.  

There's a hurricane named Dorian churning in the Caribbean when Dale gets the call to head on down; I stay behind to work on some of my sewing projects.  I guess because Florida has suffered greatly from two glancing blows and one massive hit in recent years, we all keep a serious eye on what looks to be coming our way.  Its not looking good, so I start moving flower pots, my lotus sitting frog, and other tastefully silly statuary in the yard onto the patio.  I fill up every gas can we have and top off my truck.  The guys are able to get the two winches installed in a couple of days and Dale stays an extra day to help Gerry prepare his boat.  Canvas is taken down, lines are extended and doubled up, dorades are stuffed, hatches taped and once Gerry's 52' boat is secured in a "spider web" of lines, fenders and fender boards, Dale heads back to do the same to ours.

I think this is the 4th time we've had to secure this particular boat for an impending storm.  As we're a catamaran, insurance dictates that we secure ourselves in a marina, preferably with floating docks.  We know what to do.  However, its the first time that we've done it together.  In years past, I've had the luxury of going to the marina early and would strip it myself, just piling everything inside.  Then Dale would swing by after work and tweak everything I had done; adding a line here, tightening or retying a knot there, adjusting or adding fenders.  We've been fortunate.  We've seen literally a dozen or more boats sink within our marina or wash up on its shore; its not a pretty sight.  We've watched as our dock mates tried to salvage their personal belongings once the boat is declared a total loss and it's heartbreaking.  We know that our marina on base hasn't been repaired since Irma 3 years ago (Congress moves slowly), leaving the two piers most exposed to the river, unusable.  We are vulnerable to a south wind.

Ready for Dorian

Dale returns and we decide that this time, we'll store everything at home.  We swing by our storage unit and pick up our storm lines, chains and oversized fenders and head to the boat to secure it as best we can.  Canvas is loaded into my truck, portable electronics are collected and taken off and we set about adding fenders, doubling lines, adding snubbers (a type of shock absorber), lowering the dink to below our back transom height, removing the captain's chair, and this time adding a chain to the dock itself since our most forward cleat on the dock is weak.  Dale repaired it with steel brackets to reinforce the split wood when it became obvious the marina wasn't going to be repaired anytime soon after Irma.  We text a photo of our handiwork to Gerry who in turn, teases us that if the finger pier breaks this time, we'll float down the river taking the pier with us.

The next day the forecast predicts Dorian hitting south Florida, right about where Gerry is, heading inland and then straight up the center of Florida maintaining hurricane strength winds all the way to us.  The strongest winds on the upper right side of the hurricane would be coming out of the south.

This time when we go to the boat, we take off most of our clothing and personal belongings, Dale's tools and all of our pantry items.  Dale adds another line.  Our dock mates a couple of slips down want to turn their boat around within their slip, so we offer a hand and Dale shows them how he added a chain to the dock in the event the cleat gives way.  They don't have any solid cleats where they are.

When we get home, Dale moves all of our outdoor furniture and some of the plants on the patio closer to the house.  He cuts down a dead tree in the preserve behind our house that is already tilted in our direction.  No time to ask permission at this point.  We call Gerry and plead with him to please come stay with us or at the very least get off the boat should the water crest the finger pier.  He sounds depressed and says that if he loses the boat, he's going to collect the insurance money, go home to Tasmania and back to work.  What can we say?  We're thinking we're going to lose our boat too and Dale had already started talking about a Plan B.  After all the time, work and money we've put into this boat, my Plan B is to wallow in my misery and never lift another deck brush again.

The next day, Dorian is predicted to slow and turn north moving farther to the east; a glimmer of hope.  The base announces that it will be closing at 2 pm and not opening again until after the hurricane passes.  Our last trip, so we take a few more things that can't be replaced should they get wet.  With each weather update, hope slowly creeps back into our hearts.  We start thinking we might not get a direct hit after all; we have a fighting chance and might still go on our big adventure.  We notice that our dock mates not only took Dale's suggestion about the chain to the dock but actually stretched their lines across to chain to the opposite side of us.  If things get rough, there will be a tug of war over the finger pier.  When we return home, Dale starts polishing the Isenglass windows within the canvas for something to do other than watch the painfully slow progress of the killer storm on TV.  I sew, tear it out and stitch again.  My machine is acting up.  Why now?  Gerry has found a safe place to stay, close to his boat, but not actually on it.  We can live with that; so can he.  He tells us that the water has risen to just beneath the finger pier and there are gale force winds buffeting his boat causing it to list but still riding well within the cobweb.

At last, Dorian passes to the east of us and we get no more than heavy rains and thunderstorms off and on throughout the day.  We don't even lose power.  Sadly, we still have to adjust our original plan.  Our beloved Abacos are utterly destroyed and will take years to bounce back.  Except for when we were sailing in the Caribbean in 2005 - 2006, we've spent our summer vacations there each year since 2000.  We've taken 2 of our children, 7 of our 12 grandchildren, dear friends and extended relatives there to share our love of sailing and the joy we get from visiting the islands where we can be at the hottest party in town on Sunday or anchored in the lagoon of an uninhabited island on Monday.  We had planned on passing through them one last time when we leave in November, but it looks like we'll have to adjust our plans and transit south to Miami and then across to Cat Cay as we did back in 2005.  At this point, we're still going and on our own boat.

There's another storm brewing in the South Atlantic so we've elected to leave everything here at the house instead of putting it back on the boat, in case we have to go through all of this again in a couple of weeks.  Hurricane season is over in November.  I can step over all of the bags and boxes that clutter my house until then.  My dining room is a sail loft and the rest of the house is half boat.  If you come for a visit, between now and November, bring a grappling hook; you may need it to get through the front door.

Gerry came back up this past weekend to help Dale run the cables for the new satellite telephone.  They were having problems getting the software to connect and load, so on the drive back to Ft. Pierce, Gerry thought of another possibility and called.  Dale had already resolved that particular problem but had moved on to another and started talking about GPS wiring, I couldn't help but smile when I heard them discussing whether it was a blue wire or a green one connected to the back.  I can't wait until they start tweaking their single side band radios and begin pondering frequencies and copper strapping formulas.

July 11, 2019

 

Meet Ken and Chris!  Ken is Dale’s 1^st cousin on his father’s side, i.e. Dale’s father and Ken’s father were brothers.  Chris is, in her own words “if Mary Kay were the military, I’d be a general.”  I loved that line!

Ken and Chris were taking a cruise through the western side of the Caribbean and flew into Ft. Lauderdale to hop aboard one of those “big boys” that we try desperately to avoid getting in the way of for fear that they might run right over us and barely feel the bump.  We met at their hotel for our first meet and greet.  Unfortunately for us, Ken’s father was one of the oldest in a family of 13 children and Dale’s father was one of the youngest, so Ken doesn’t remember ever meeting Dale’s father and if he ever did, he was quite young.  However, he did say that his older brother keeps up with the far flung members of the family and may be able to help us locate a photograph that we could pass down to our children and grandchildren.  Again, its one of those situations where his brother is an ex-pat living in Thailand and we’ll have to wait for his next visit to learn of any possible sleuthing he could do on our behalf.  Still we were happy to make a great connection with that side of the family. 

On the boating front, while we were in the Ft. Lauderdale area, Dale was able to locate some barrel bolts to finish putting a door frame back together.  Some of the original bolts disintegrated when they were removed for me to “monkey fur” that particular wall.  Monkey fur is boat speak for carpeting for the walls.  So now all that is left to complete in the forward stateroom is the overhead.  We had hired a cabinet maker to add some cabinetry to that room which necessitates redesigning the overhead (think of it as a suspended ceiling). 

As luck would have it, to trim down the overhead Dale had to access his table saw in the garage.  However, when he moved it from its storage area, he found a trickle of water coming from the water softener.  Do you see the one step forward, two steps back, scenario beginning?  Well it did.  He turned off the water to the house but when he disconnected the water softener from the water supply, he took a spontaneous shower.  Apparently (because everything is located behind walls and the only things visible are the pvc pipes sticking straight out of the walls) the water supply goes into the water softener before it goes into the house.  So he needed to locate the water turn-off outside the house, in the bushes, buried beneath layers of muck, mud, and stuff you don’t want to think about (I’m not sure how he even found it).  Needless to say, I eventually was recruited to drive to the nearest hardware store to obtain a couple of washers, not because that’s what he thought the issue was but because since he had to tear it apart, you might as well replace those too. 

Thus begins the 2^nd part of the “two steps back”.  Nope!  In spite of having 4  2’x 6’ sliding walls of neatly labeled 3”x 6” drawers containing every washer, o-ring, and cone shaped whatevers in the State of Florida, none were the right size.  To make a long story short, I went back to pick him up and we spent the next couple of hours going to various stores trying to locate said washers.  Which of course, we never did find.   So he elected to put it all back together using the same washers to see if his original theory of a failed o-ring (which he already had in his own stash of bits in the garage) would take care of the problem.  So far, its holding.  BUT,

There’s a red light blinking on our solar hot water heater.  He turned it off and back on.  The red light went away but he doesn’t think its working properly. 

 And so it begins. 


 

July 3, 2019

Its Official!!  Dale has retired.  We had a nice sailboat/pirate party attended by friends, family and colleagues last week and this week we’ve spent sitting in various Social Security/Medicare, Tricare and retirement planning offices making sure that all the I’s are dotted, T’s crossed and plans we’ve put into place are actually going to work so that we can once again, sail off into the sunset.  Quite literally as this time we’d like to make it to Australia before we’re too old to totter up and down the gang plank.  Time will tell.  Dale has been rather apprehensive about the idea of not having a job, or maybe I should say-not having a job he can escape the ‘honey-do’ list to.  Times Up!  You’re all mine (bruhaha) and the boat’s.

 

On other fronts, we’re heading to Ft. Lauderdale for the holiday weekend to meet a first cousin of his that we met through Ancestry.  Dale has never known any of his family outside of the tight little circle of his immediate family.  Although I’ve been curious over the years, he never felt it was necessary to explore further.  Of course, Ancestry came into our lives shortly after Christmas when, Robbie, his sister, shamed us into doing the spit test.  BEWARE:  If anyone tries to lure you into this endless pit, don’t do it!  You’ll be lucky if you can escape without your PJs rotting off your body because you couldn’t tear yourself away from a site so full of data, you couldn’t put it away for a few minutes of sleep for fear that you’d lose your train of thought and never find it again.  Of course you will find it again; at 2 am when your eyes are slamming shut.  So what’s another hour; or two.  Needless to say, here we are a few months later and we have more family than we know what to do with, thus the trip to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Then, its boat time.  On this trip we’ll be sailing a 2006 42’ Manta catamaran.  Over the past 4 years, we’ve updated various systems, structures and equipment and will continue to prepare over the next 4 months with an eye toward dropping our lines the first of November, or the first weather window thereafter, for Australia.  If you’re game, we’ll try to share our preparations and trip in an honest but humorous manner. 

December 7, 2014
Jacksonville, Florida

The call from the Coast Guard came in mid morning.  He told me the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Beacon) on Gypsy Palace had alerted them that she was sinking and proceeded to ask questions as to how many souls were onboard, emergency equipment available, etc.  My mind fought to straighten out the inconsistencies.  He said that she was positioned near Mayaguana.  Yes, I knew where that was, we had spent the first Christmas of our sabbatical there snuggly anchored behind a reef.  We’d also spent a couple of weeks behind the same reef waiting for a weather window on our return home but the last time I was on board the Palace, she was in 6’ of water at NAS Jax, what had happened?  I had just renewed our EPIRB registration and wondered if someone had taken it from its cradle.  Then I remembered that in doing so, I learned that the previous owner had never registered it.  So, I started asking questions, what boat are you talking about?  A 2000 Hunter 45 or a 2006 Manta 42 catamaran?  He was looking for a Hunter.  To be brief I told him we had sold our Hunter 2 years prior and that it would take a few minutes to locate the paperwork to ascertain the name of the new owner and asked him to leave me his number so I could call him back. 

 Tears filled my eyes as I tried to wrap my head around the idea that our beloved Hunter was sinking.  We had made so many memories aboard her.  We had so many safety devices on board her.  Dale had dubbed me the safety officer and the locals on the dock had taken to teasing me about how much money and concern I was willing to spend on the bottom of our boat.  Dale had actually installed an emergency bilge pump that many thought would have kept the Titantic from sinking.  What possibly could have happened?

I located the file I had and returned the call.  I answered as many questions as I could and gave him the name of the broker who had handled the transaction thinking that he might have more information available.  I relayed the information regarding all the safety equipment we had sold with the boat which included a life raft and the emergency pump and a manual Dale had created depicting all of the various systems and how to use them. 

When I couldn’t stand not knowing any longer, I called the Coast Guard back and asked what had happened.  What we know is that a Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to pick up 3 souls from a badly listing Hunter; she is presumed to have sunk somewhere near Mayaguana.  She had been sold a second time 2 months prior and neither the persons we sold it to, nor the ones that they sold it to, had updated the EPIRB emergency information.  It is unknown as to how much of the emergency equipment we left onboard was transferred in the second transaction.  It is unknown as to how the accident occurred.  What is understood is that once the batteries are underwater, all power is lost.  What is known, is that a beautiful, sea worthy boat, we still considered a part of our family, is at the bottom of the ocean.  From the first time her bottom splashed water she took us back and forth to the Bahamas each year and throughout the Caribbean for 18 months safely and securely and if it hadn’t been for the fact that we couldn’t accommodate our expanding family for visits, we still would have been sailing on her. 

Rest in peace, our big, beautiful girl. 

 

July 1, 2007
Jacksonville, FL

“Drink it up, this one’s for you,

it’s been a lovely cruise.” 

Being Dale’s favorite artist, it’s not unusual for me to wake to Jimmy Buffet’s crooning but this time it was unusually poignant.

We’d left Sale Cay in the Abacos, in the wee hours of the morning thoroughly expecting the nasty weather we encountered.  The first couple of hours weren’t anything we hadn’t experienced before.  Wind, rain, lightening in the distance, but we were actually running with the wind and it was pushing us along quite nicely.  As the wind increased, we shortened sail but kept running.  I Dream of Jeannie was right there with us and periodically would radio to make sure all was right with the world.  As the rain increased, they radioed that they were going inside and wouldn’t be able to hear the radio. Dale and I looked at each other, not something we would do but then we’re chickens and want to be the first to know when the sky is falling. 

Then the sky fell.  Everything was going along beautifully, when a gust of wind came up, we listed severely and suddenly were going in the opposite direction.  The Palace had a nasty habit of heading up in the wind but it had saved our bacon in a few instances and this was no different.  As if she were telling us “it’s time to slow down and reassess guys” she turned 180* and pointed into the wind.  OK, time to bring in the sails and turn on the engine.  Right about then I Dream of Jeannie radioed back that they’d had enough (we were too busy dealing with our boat to see what had happened to them) and as soon as we made our waypoint at the Bahama Bank, they were making a left hand turn and heading in to Ft. Pierce instead of continuing on to Jacksonville.  We said our ados and wished them well.  The storm eventually passed, the skies cleared and we continued on without further drama; except for the occasional engine sputter that came from bouncing in the storm waves-which was to be expected. 

“I'm sorry it's ended
It's sad but it's true
Honey it's been a lovely cruise”

We entered the Mayport jetty as dark clouds gathered on the horizon and the occasional lightening could be seen.  We followed the old familiar path along the St. Johns River that serpentines just south of the North Florida-Georgia state line.  Shortly after passing Dames Point Bridge and just before the sharp turn toward Jacksonville, our engine sputtered and died.  Dale has become an expert at changing fuel filters during the last 18 months and before we had come to a complete stop, had the filter changed and the engine fired up again.  

We continued along the River toward Jacksonville.  As we approached the big red Mathews Bridge, it really hit home - our Sabbatical was over.  We are back home and soon will be back to our normal lives as if we were just returning from a summer holiday.  We passed under the hart Bridge and soon after requested an opening from the Main Street Bridge.  We motored through Jacksonville under the Acosta Bridge, past the railroad bridge and curved under the Fuller Warren Bridge.  The weather was closing in on us, so we decided to pull "off the road" into Plummers Cover, a little area across from NAS Jax.  Although Bob and Karen from Annabelle II were excited to have us back at our former marina, we were exhausted and radioed ahead to let them know we were stopping for sleep. 

"These moments we’re left with
May you always remember
These moments are shared by few
There's wind in our hair
And there's water in our shoes
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise”

I could smell Dale’s coffee brewing and knew that soon he’d rouse me from my pillow but what I didn’t expect was when he did, he asked me to come dance with him.

"These moments we're left with
May you always remember
These moments are shared by few
And those harbor lights
Aw they're coming into view
We bid our farewell much too soon
So drink it up
This one's for you
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise”
Yea, I know, what a guy!  Just don’t ever tell him I said so. 

 June 28, 2007

Great Sale Cay
Bahamas
26.59.127N
78.12.914W

Another rainy day but today we set about securing the Palace for the transit across the Gulf Stream. We tucked things away that might shift and Dale laid out our jacklines, harnesses, lifejackets and tethers. The dink was snugged up and the navigational lights were checked and rechecked.

Another boat in the anchorage by the name of “I Dream of Jeannie” hailed us on the radio and asked about the weather report for the next coming days. Dale filled them in and it looks like they will be making the transit with us. It appears that if we want to make the crossing anytime soon, we have to travel in nasty weather either on the first day or the last. We’ve decided that it would be better to do that on the first day than later when we’re tired.

We measured and interpolated the speeds we think we’ll be traveling and have concluded that we should leave at 2am so that we can make the Mayport jetty on an incoming tide in the afternoon. Now all we have to do is get a decent amount of sleep before we take off. Always easier said than done.

Great Sale Cay
Bahamas
26.59.127N
78.12.914W

Although today looked totally miserable, it really wasn’t too bad. However, no matter how much I suggested that we make the return trip to Carter Cays so that Dale could explore the abandoned tracking station, he refused, so we stayed aboard, reading, watching DVD’s, doing cross-word puzzles and every other rainy day activity we could come up with.
I wish I could write more but it was just one of those days.

Great Sale Cay
Bahamas
26.59.127N
78.12.914W

35.4 NM
6.5 Kt Avg.
7.9 Kt. Max
5.27 Hrs.

Current Odom: 8012.5 NM

What’s the saying? “The best laid plans of mice and men . . . ”

As is our custom, we listened to the weather report first thing this morning. Squalls would be coming in during the night and most of tomorrow. Toucan Dream hailed us on the radio and then came over to say goodbye with promises on both sides to get together in Florida. We had a wonderful time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon. Dale saw Aye Doc on the horizon and hailed them to check on Stacy’s hand and to say our good byes to them as well. They’re from Georgia, so perhaps we can get together with them in the future too.

We hoisted our anchor and headed out of the anchorage. Tina, a British flagged sailboat, was right behind us. We waved to them and yelled across as we passed by; they were heading west, we were heading northwest. We added in a few more way points into the chart plotter to take us along a northern route to Carter Cay where we wanted to explore an abandoned tracking station and then dinghy over to Yankee Cay to rummage through the conch shells the fishermen leave behind.

The better part of the morning was a great motor sail. However, as usual, Mother Nature had other ideas and decided to add thunder, lightening and buckets of rain into the mix. We slowed our pace when the visibility decreased and dodged a few boats heading in our direction on the same “road”. We turned on the radar and were happy to see that we would be able to skirt most of the squall. In fact, by the time we reached our waypoint to turn off “the road” to Carter Cay, it appeared that the squall was breaking up. We hadn’t gone more than a mile toward Carter Cay, when it started raining again. So we consulted the radar again and saw that the storm was developing more behind us and heading our way.

Since we have never been to Carter Cay and according to the map the anchorage was clearly exposed, once again, we changed our direction and headed toward Great Sale Cay. At least here, there is protection offered in the form of a horseshoe shaped harbor. A couple of looks over the shoulder at first showed that Carter Cay was under a black cloud. A little later on it appeared to have clear skies. At this point though, Dale wasn’t inclined to turn around and go back. I think if tomorrow morning the skies are clear (in case the forecast is wrong), I’ll suggest a day trip there and back.

We’ve been very fortunate as far as mechanical difficulties are concerned, so you can imagine our surprise when the engine started to falter coming into Great Sale to anchor. Of course, another squall was bearing down on us at the time but we managed to get in and anchored without mishap. Although the fuel filter didn’t appear to be clogged or water logged, Dale went ahead and changed it and cleaned all of the water strainers again, just in case. We won’t actually know if this has done the trick until we run the engine again. Right now, in the anchorage, it’s doing great.

Great Sale is our jumping off point for heading home and now that we are here, it’s hard to believe that our Sabbatical is almost over. We still have another long transit ahead of us but due to the engine sputtering, Dale has already completed several of his pre-transit checks so securing the Palace for the crossing should be rather simple.

Allens-Pensacola Cay

Abacos, Bahamas
26.59.333N
77.41.225W

Another great day of fun and fishing. Bob hailed us on the radio this morning to see if we would be interested in going on a “weenie dive.” What he told me this meant was a dive which would be less likely of running into “the men in grey suits”; I guess he heard that I don’t play well with sharks. Well of course we’d be interested! Jim & Betsy on Two By Sea had left last evening for Treasure Cay to pick up their daughter and granddaughter for a visit. Aye Doc with Stacy & Nancy left for the Carter Cays early this morning. That left just the four of us to take on the sea.

Bob & Caron picked us up about an hour later and we headed to the ocean side of Umbrella Cay to the north of where we are anchored. We went about a mile offshore and found some shallow reefs to dive. The four of us jumped in and Dale and I swam around one patch reef but then cut across when the water started getting really murky. We saw a ray, lots of reef fish, and some Flamingo Tongues (a class of gastropods - according to my book) which are really pretty snails.

We all climbed back into Bobcat, their dink, and headed off shore another mile for some wreck diving. What a hoot. The debris field for this particular wreck was huge. Caron decided to hang back but I grabbed my camera, jumped in and snapped away. We got the coordinates for the site from Bob and will definitely have to come back another time. Its one of those wreck dives you could poke around on all day.

Bob took the long way home trolling for grouper and hogfish or mutton snapper but all we caught was yellow tail snapper. They were pretty small so they were released back in for another day of fishing.

We made it back to the boat at 3pm. Hard to believe we spent the entire day mostly in the water but it was a blast. I took 70 pictures of which 10 were immediately deleted. I’m going to have a hard time when we get back home figuring out which pictures are worth printing from our trip. It’ll take a month just to print out the ones I do select.

Tomorrow we’ll hoist our anchor and start heading west toward the Carter Cays. By this time next week, we’ll be home.

Allens-Pensacola Cay

Abacos, Bahamas
26.59.333N
77.41.225W

Today was the big day. The guys had made plans to go spear fishing at 9am this morning. However, Mother Nature had other ideas. Rumblings off to the West could be heard; thunderboomers were definitely building. Bob on Toucan Dream called everyone to ask whether there was still a fishing expedition happening. He had consulted the radar and we had several storm cells heading in our direction. It was agreed among the gentlemen that they would wait for awhile to see how things developed.

While they were waiting, Stacy from Aye Doc called Dale to ask his opinion about a puncture wound in his hand that he thought was getting infected. They discussed the various how, what and when, then Dale told him that he would come over to look at it.

Bob on Toucan Dream dropped by as Dale was digging through his medical kit. He thought it would be great fun to pull a practical joke on Stacy and wanted Dale to tell him that he couldn’t go in salt water until it had healed. Stacy lives to swim, snorkel, dive and fish; this would not go down well in his book. Stacy also saw through the ruse before Dale had barely gotten the more likely ‘need to stay out of the sun’ associated with medication out of his mouth. So the practical joke never got off the ground.

About an hour after their scheduled departure time, Lady Luck smiled in their direction, most likely hearing the disappointment in Stacey’s voice when everyone agreed to wait for a bit, before they (Dale, Bob, Stacy and Jim from Two By Sea) were on their way for a boys day of fishing. They figured that an hour of fishing was better than nothing and that the spouses of the great hunter/gatherers would stay with the boats in case the wind and rain picked up.

The ladies on the other hand had made plans to go beachcombing for sea glass, sea shells, sponges and driftwood. We too watched the radar and when the closest cell disintegrated before making it to our anchorage and the cell behind it was clearly moving south of us, we came to the same conclusion. An hour of beachcombing was better than none. So, I joined Caron, Nancy and Betsy for what I thought was going to be the remainder of the morning. Little did I know that these ladies were serious beachcombers. I had a great time chit chatting and searching for treasure on the beach but I was shocked when we finally made it back to our respective boats and learned that it was 4pm already. No wonder they had commented about me burning in the sun. I really don’t go out in it directly for very long and it shows regardless of how tan I may appear.

Another surprise waiting for us when we got back was that the guys had beat us back by about 15 minutes. Dale had already cleaned one of the 3 fish he caught and was preparing to tackle the huge grouper that he had speared. He was truly excited that he had landed the “biggest fish” for the day. He told me how they had taken turns 2 by 2 swimming around patch reefs looking for their prey and how they would flush them out, then swim around and spear them with their Hawaii slings. He told how he and Bob had spied a 50 pounder and that Bob had cautioned him that the really big ones catch you instead of the other way around by dragging you with them once they’ve been speared. Dale said that the one that he did catch, dang near dragged him back to its hole, so now he knows where his limit is. He also told me that they kept moving to stay ahead of the sharks. I could have gone all day without that tidbit of information.

Needless to say we’re both exhausted but we did have a great grilled grouper dinner to end the day.

Allens-Pensacola Cay

Abacos, Bahamas
26.59.333N
77.41.225W

13.8 NM
5.4 Kt Avg.
6.1 Kt Max
2.33 Hrs.

Current Odom: 7977.0 NM

Today looked to be a beautiful day, so as other boats came into the anchorage to seek refuge from the wind, we hoisted anchor and headed further north to Allens-Pensacola.

We arrived about noon and eased into the shallow anchorage with Toucan Dream, Aye Doc, Two By Sea as well as several other boats and found a spont in 8’ of water. We dropped the hook and made sure it set securely. Then we let out plenty of chain in case the weather turned foul again.

We lowered the dink and made our way to the eastern side of Allens, to see if the swing we had hung from the trees 3 years ago was still there. Surprisingly, it was having managed to survive 2 hurricanes and a couple more tropical storms. Even our sign and Fandango’s (Fred & Geri) float were still attached to the trees that are commonly referred to as the “yacht club.” We snapped a couple of pictures, beach combed for sea glass and then headed back to the Palace.

Two By Sea invited those of us who had been in Georgetown together over for social hour. Jim & Betsy own a 65’ Cape Horn trawler. Talk about a home on the water; Two By Sea is a gorgeous boat. Stacy & Nancy from Aye Doc and Bob & Caron from Toucan Dream were also there. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and made arrangements to meet again tomorrow. The guys are going spear fishing and the ladies are going beach combing.

Cooper Town

Great Abaco, Bahamas
26.52.442N
77.30.554W

Today was a nice day but still a little windy for anchoring in any other harbor. In fact, Toucan Dream hailed us on the radio and said that they would be coming for a visit later in the morning. Just before noon, they dropped by in Bobcat, their very nice and very large tender that they fish from. They were headed into town to the grocery store and dropped by to say hi. They relayed that Angelfish Point was getting choppy but they thought they’d ride it out.

We joined them in town later for lunch and while Bob, Caron and Dale enjoyed fried conch, I had baked chicken. It was a pretty good meal and we enjoyed their company.

After lunch, they headed back to Toucan Dream, Dale went down for a nap and I picked up another book. Pretty soon, Pixy Dust and Naked Lady came into the anchorage. We’d last seen them in Marsh Harbor. Not too long after that, Sand Dollar, who shared the anchorage with us in Manjack came in from Angelfish Point. Earl said that when his wife gave him that look, he knew that it was time to leave. So Angelfish and some of the other anchorages open to the west wind must be getting pretty uncomfortable. We thoroughly figured that Toucan Dream wouldn’t be far behind them but it looks like they gutted it out.

Things seemed to be calming down by the end of the day but we’ll give Toucan Dream a call before hoisting our anchor and heading north to more exposed anchorages tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re sung as a bug in a rug in Cooper Town. In fact, 5 teenage boys swam out to the boat, touched the bow and swam back, hootin and hollerin the whole way. Probably some dare to see if they would do it. We’re becoming a regular fixture to their water view property.

Great Abaco
Cooper Town
26.52.442N
77.30.554W

We forgot to turn on the trip log.

The first thing Dale said to me this morning (after he said good morning) was: do you think Belezia is getting closer? That’s certainly one way to wake someone up in a hurry. Yep, it was. They were still at a safe distance away but they had halved the distance that had once been between us. Dale hailed them about 8am and the captain said that he was watching the situation.

Now you’re probably wondering how we knew that it was them and not us. Well, it’s hard to drag upwind and since they were upwind of us, that means it was their boat that had changed positions.

Once the clouds that had threatened rain and a possible change of wind had passed, we lowered the dink and took a spin around the island in the opposite direction. We saw a good sized ray in the shallow sand but nothing that looked like a good snorkel. We continued around the island to the ocean side and pulled onto a sandy beach to go beach combing. Surprisingly, we didn’t find very much in the way of sea shells. We did see a dead porcupine fish, a dead sea gull and what appeared to be the nose cone of an airplane but little else of interest. We finished our circumnavigation and returned to the Palace. By this time, Belezia was past us dragging toward the beach.

We had lunch and called Toucan Dream to see how the weather was in Allens-Pensacola; it was looking rather cloudy in their direction. Bob said that there was quite a chop in the anchorage and that they were moving to another anchorage at Angelfish Point.

Well since we’re not going to Allens-Pensacola today, we decided to check out Cooper Town as we’ve never been there before and they were supposed to have two grocery stores. We hoisted anchor a little later and motored across the channel. We found one of the two grocery stores but they were sorely missing most of the fresh vegetables that I was looking for. They were very kind and even called the second grocery store to see if they had any other fresh vegetables. Nope, only frozen. OK, then I’ll just take a head of lettuce and 2 green peppers and call it a salad.

The Palace is the only boat in the anchorage here in Cooper Town and it’s a lot calmer than it was over in Powell Cay. If the wind does pipe up during the night, we’ll be a lot more protected over here. And if we drag, we’ll just drag out onto the bank.

Powell Cay
Abacos, Bahamas

26.54.271N
77.29.084W
10.1 NM
5.9 Kt Avg.
6.8 Kt Max
1.42 Hrs.

Current Odom:
7963.0



After listening to the cruisers net this morning and one last check of the e-mail, we disconnected, hoisted the anchor and moved north to Powell Cay. We tucked as close as we could to shore in the open bay, dropped the hook in an tiny circle of sand and backed down. We noted that Belezia (remember Bakers Bay?) was also in the anchorage.
Dale dove the anchor to make sure that it was indeed set, then returned to lower the dink. We took a quick trip around the bay checking out the various wrecks before heading back to the Palace due to some nasty weather that appeared to be heading toward us.

Luckily it passed us without a single drop so we grabbed our snorkel gear and our paper trash and headed to the opposite side of the island. While I beach combed for sea shells, Dale burned our paper thus cutting our garbage in half. I found a few bits of sponge for Kenny and a few shells here and there. A pair of terns spied me walking and started making quite a fuss. First they peeped and squeaked incredibly, then they acted as if they were injured. Clearly they were trying to create a division to focus my attention toward them, so I looked around to see what they didn’t want me to see. Two tiny little chicks were scurrying through the leaves near the beach, so I must of encroached too close to their nest. Too bad for them I had my camera. A couple of steps toward one of the baby chicks and suddenly the little tyke stopped dead in its tracks and didn’t move in the slightest. I zoomed in on him, got my picture and continued on down the beach. I’m sure, much to the delight of the parents.

Dale and I were heading back to the dink, when we stopped in our tracks looking north. It was absolutely black toward Allens-Pensacola, the cay where we would have been had we stuck to our schedule. We learned later via the radio chatter that the anchorage where Toucan Dream had been (and we would have been) had been hit by a couple of water spouts. A couple of boats were spun around; one lost its bimini as a result but thankfully, no injuries were reported.

We headed back the way we had come and stopped along the beach to follow a couple of trails. One led over the island to the beach on the ocean side and the other led to the cliffs overlooking the anchorage. Both trails were marked with flotsam and jetsam and anything else that people could grab to mark the trail. We never did find the memorial that Bob & Karen had told us about.

On one of the trails, we met a guy who was quite the chatterbox. He told us that he has been living aboard for 30 years. We chatted about the various places that we’ve been and he told us of the changes over the years. He’s very disappointed that there are hardly any nice places left where you can anchor in Florida. I didn’t even want to mention the state of insurance for fear that we’d never get back to the boat. A nice guy but a bit of a displaced hippy sort. He probably saw Dale’s ponytail as symbolic of a lost era. Eventually, we excused ourselves and made our way back to the Palace.

Tomorrow, we think that we’ll try to locate the memorial at the other end of the island before moving north to Allens-Pensacola. We figure that it’s safe now. Surely, it won’t be hit twice in the same week.


Photo 1: Wreck on the beach
Photo 2: Look real close and you'll see the baby bird

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

We’ve had some nice weather the last couple of days. I’ve taken to checking my e-mails, swimming a few laps around the boat, then surfing the internet to my heart’s content. Dale has been tasking himself with little odd jobs here and there, swimming around the boat a few times, reading and getting a few more CME classes done.

Today, we gave up waiting and called the insurance companies again. We’ve learned that once again, we’re at their mercy. It’s going to cost us considerably more to stay put in a river 20 miles from the ocean than it has been to travel from island to island throughout the Caribbean. It cost us more to go sailing when we left and now its costing us more to come home again. Go figure!

With our business accomplished, I have no reason to linger longer except that once again, the internet has become my umbilical to the rest of the world. Tomorrow, I’ll check my e-mails, then disconnect until we’re back in Florida. We’ve been told that there are no more connections between here and there.

So . . . We’ll catch up with ya’ll on the other side of the Gulf Stream.

Photo: Curly tailed lizard watching us, watching him.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W





Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there! For the first time in days, its actually pretty sunny outside.








We took advantage of the nice weather and went for a hike along the nature trail on Manjack. Although the island has taken a beating during the past couple of hurricanes, the nature trail’s paths have been widened and new palm trees have been planted here and there along the trail. We saw one of the huge land crabs walking through the underbrush along the trail. It’s not something you’d ever want to have an encounter with.





With the nice weather, Toucan Dream moved north to Powell Cay today. Also with the reasonably nice weather forecast for the next couple of days, Annabelle II decided to head home while the seas were down. Business and family matters were starting to encroach upon their vacation time and when their toilet broke, it was the last straw.









We’re sticking around for the internet until I’m positive we’ve got insurance coverage on the Palace taken care of.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W


Once again, the radar shows a huge swath of nasty weather heading our way first thing this morning but we’re determined to get a little exploring in before we’re trapped on the boat for another day.

Bob & Karen from Annabelle II and Dale & I dinked around to the ocean side of Manjack and beach combed for sea glass for Karen, sea shells for me, and whatever flotsam and jetsam the guys couldn’t possibly live without.

We saw what looked like a couple of little sharks playing in the shallow waters as we headed back to our dinks and kept our distance from them as we waded out into deeper water. The tide had gone out and once again, we did the African Queen reenactment of walking through the shallows towing the dink by hand.

The rest of the day was spent reading, uploading pictures on the blog from 5/29/2007 forward, playing computer games and watching movies. Since I had a pretty good internet connection at one point, I tried to get some insurance business completed using voice over internet protocol. The long and short of it was: call back on Monday.



Photo 1: Kenny's Tree
Photo 2: X marks the spot

Manjack Cay

I've got a pretty good connection here so I've gone back to 5/29/2007 and added photos to my blog posts. I hope you enjoy them.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

It was terribly overcast this morning and the radar showed some nasty weather heading in our direction but we were determined to do something before being holed up on the boat again. We radioed Annabelle II and asked if they wanted to join us in exploring the mangrove channels. A short time later we were putt putting our way through the shallows among the mangrove trees looking at bonefish, sting rays and lots of little conch and upside down jellyfish.

A couple of hours later, we were rushing back to our respective boats trying to out run the squall bearing down on us.

Back on the Palace we hunkered down and waited for the big blow. We had heard a report of 52 kts in Tahiti Beach. We did get some wind and rain but nothing like those to the south of us.
The Junkanoo Parade that had been rained out last Friday in Marsh Harbor was on schedule again for this today according to our radio. However, once again, Marsh Harbor was getting hit with the full force of the rain storm. I have no idea if the Junkanoo went on as scheduled or not.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

17.2NM
5.5 Kt Avg
6.2 Kt Max
3.07 Hrs.

Current Odom: 7953.0

This morning looked promising for a transit of “the Whale,” so Annabelle II and we lifted our anchors about 7:30am and headed out. It was a quiet trip with only a 1-2’ swell making its way onto the bank. We exited off the bank along Loggerhead Channel north of Great Guana and made our way north for about 15 minutes before turning back onto the bank again south of Noname Cay. Annabelle II took advantage of their shallower draft by taking the short cut across the bank when we got back into the protected waters. We were on an outgoing tide and decided that our extra weight warranted the more cautious deeper route.

Both crews stopped in Green Turtle. Annabelle II went into White Sound for fuel, while we anchored outside of Settlement Harbor to make a quick run in for groceries. Dale was even lucky enough to finally find a small coffee maker that didn’t require a second mortgage on the boat and fits into the space that we had allotted for the old one.

We stopped and knocked on Island Flyer a catamaran that we thought was the boat our friends, John & Cherry had e-mailed us about. Although it wasn’t the same boat, we had a nice visit with Mike the single handler who was on board.

We had made our way back to the Palace and had secured the dink when Annabelle II hailed us From their trip to Settlement Harbor and asked if we wanted to have lunch in town. Oops, a little miscommunication, so we ended up taking a rain check on the offer.

We hoisted anchors again and made the short hop up to Manjack. We selected a sandy spot near Toucan Dream to drop our hook and Annabelle II found another on the opposite side of the harbor. (Maybe it was something we said. We’re going to have to watch those smart aleck remarks.)

Bob and Caron from Toucan Dream dropped by shortly after we anchored. They told us about the gathering on the beach at sundown to offer a last toast to Marty, a single handler who favored the harbor we were in and who, they learned, had died today, succumbing to lung cancer.

At the appointed hour, crews from several of the boats in the harbor gathered under the little tiki hut in Marty’s memory though nothing was mentioned of his passing. I’m not sure if it was an oversight or if that was the plan from the beginning. In any event, I brought bug spray for the mosquitoes and Karen from Annabelle II brought a Thermacell to repel the little bloodsuckers but in the end, it was the incoming tide forced us all back to our respective boats.

RIP Marty.

Photo: Bob & Karen from Annabelle II in "Tink"

Baker’s Bay
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.41.390N
77.09.611W



What a rude awakening we had this morning. The wind picked up about 5 am this morning and by 5:30, Dale was up collecting our various handheld electronic instruments and laptops to put into the oven with the first clap of thunder. (The thought is that by placing the instruments into the oven, they’ll somehow be protected from being fried should we be hit by lightening. The black cloud was enormous and the boats were swinging through complete 360s by the time the storm passed through.

Our big excitement came when a large steel power yacht guesstimated to be about 85’ long started dragging down on a catamaran about 35’ long. Dale tried hailing them on the VHF on a couple of different channels but with no response. Finally the catamaran owner awoke to the problem and somehow got the attention of the power yacht’s captain. The family of 5 came up and lifted their anchor and moved upwind of Toucan Dream. Bob was delighted that the 3 teenaged daughters in their bikinis were going to be closer but not so thrilled to be downwind of Daddy’s big metal boat with an incredible amount of windage. Luckily no collision ensued. This couldn’t be said of the boats anchored in Marsh Harbor. Via the radio, we heard that several boats had dragged anchor there and that a few had ended up making contact. Toucan Dream Bob likes to call it Smash Harbor.

I sat in the cockpit with Dale through the boat shuffle and listened to the “cruiser’s net” which was comprised of not only the weather but the effort made to reconnect those who had lost items with those who had found items. My favorite was the red SeaRay cockpit cushions found making an escape from Marsh Harbor that had found their way out into the Abaco Sea. Obviously it was going to be a dark and nasty day so I went back to bed.

About noon, Toucan Dream and Aye Doc decided to make the run through “the Whale” while they still could and head to Green Turtle. Dale had just finished reading the weather report we get over the satellite phone when they radioed their plans. The next nasty storm wasn’t supposed to arrive until Sunday, so we figure we have a day or two yet.

Once the storm passed, it was actually a pretty nice day. I spent some time floating around in my inner tube which is securely attached to the Palace with a rope. We watched another large power boat spend a couple of hours detangling their 2 anchors; the captain was not a happy camper. With the 360's we all were doing this morning, their anchors twisted together. We were really surprised when after they had separated the anchors, they turned around and set the two of them again.

We called Bob & Karen on Annabelle II to see if they wanted to learn how to play Mexican Train Dominos. About 5pm we settled into an evening of counting spots. Now we’ll all be ready when we run into Toucan Dream again.