The Buehrle Girls in the Bahamas!

After a bit of drama last week, Cathy arrived Friday evening.  Snow had her flight ready to land in Baltimore, only to get turned around and headed back to Manchester.  They left again, and she made the delayed connection and landed in Nassau.  Unfortunately, Pamela was not so fortunate.  The snow, a jackknifed tractor trailer, and a very nasty Southwest Airlines staff person caused her to miss the flight.  Re-scheduled for Sunday, we made the best of a couple extra days at Palm Cay Marina.  Not much of a hardship for us, but a bummer for Pamela.

Once everyone made it, we took off for the Exuma Cays on Monday.  A wind in our face, and bumpy seas crossing for six hours had us all trying to enjoy the sail.  Dropped the hook inside Allan's Cay and had a great little snorkel.  During our lovely dinner, we noticed we were getting closer to the rocky coral shore, so a very long fire drill later, we moved over to Highborne Cay and anchored off the beach with two anchors.  (Oh, did I mention our windlass motor burned out?  Pamela brought one with her from the states).  So - the only real muscle on board (Greg) had to haul anchor by hand.  We decided to use two anchors. Our secondary Bruce anchor has only 20 feet of chain and then rope rode.  It seems to hold better on the sand bottom.  The main anchor is a CQR and has 200 feet of chain and is larger, so the weight to let it out and get it up is not easy to do manually.  Anyway - once again, it was a light night of sleeping while Sharon was up every hour or so, checking out our position.

In the morning, it took two hours to get both anchors up - Sharon and Cathy stayed on board, Pamela and Greg went off on the dingy to try to get the Bruce to come up - Greg was in the water with fins and mask, for almost two hours, trying to get the anchor to release, so that we could then haul the other one up, too.  Lesson learned - a trip line with a float next time (which of course we had on board, but never thought to use it).  Why is it that we need to learn from our own bad experiences, rather than taking advice from those who have already learned it?

With light wind, we motored south, outside the Cays and down through Wax Cay Cut to head around to Shroud Cay - inside the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  We were fortunate to get a mooring ball and immediately set off with our snorkels and fins donned to see what there was to see.  Cathy and Pamela saw tons of fish, a very large ray (we think a manta ray) and some lovely coral.  Sharon went to get them with the dingy and continued up into the mangrove creeks.  So cool - you can dingy way up into the creeks in 4-5 feet of water.

It is a beautiful spot and everyone enjoyed their time - except for poor Greg who spent the first of three days crammed inside the anchor locker working on the installing the new windlass motor.  He got very cranky at times.  Understandable as he was working in lousy conditions while the rest of us played.

Greg climbing out of the anchor locker

Next day was another short motor to Hawksbill Cay and a mooring right near the beach.  Beautiful!  Great snorkeling, lovely beaches, good sights!

On our way back from our snorkeling, Sharon spotted two funnel clouds stretching down toward the horizon.  In another 30 minutes, there was a water spout on the horizon.  Wild!  Never saw one and we were all glad it was far away!

The next day was as beautiful as the last few and everyone was sad to have to head back.  We motored Northwest for awhile and then decided to hoist the spinnaker.  With the wind directly behind us, we flew back to Palm Cay at 7-8 knots.  It was a beautiful sail!  Once back in the marina, we enjoyed the last 24 hours by the beach, the pool and having a lot of laughs.  It was so great to have Cathy and Pamela on board.  They said they want to come back, so our mission is accomplished!  

Happy Sailors!

The next day, a half day rental car got the laundry dropped off, two women to the airport, a grocery run and laundry pick-up.  We cleaned and turned the boat around for our new guest's arrival - our friend Andra is in town for a week.  More fun to be had!  

SPECIAL NOTE: Remember, you can click on each photo to make it larger!

We made it to the Bahamas and are enjoying some wifi at a lovely marina on the east end of New Providence Island (the island where Nassau is located).  We traveled south to Key Largo in order to get a good angle on the wind and gulf stream.  We had heard that you should plan for the stream to push you north as much as one mile for every hour of travel, so we set a course for 10 miles south of Bimini.  Our boat travels at an average of six to seven knots and it is about 55 miles from Key Largo to Bimini.  After waiting for a good crossing day, we got one and it was worth the wait.  Leaving before light on Sunday, March 15, we headed through Angelfish Creek (on the north end of Key Largo) and out into the ocean.  We had scoped out the route a few days in advance, by going out the creek and laying a track and waypoints to follow so that we could do it in the dark.  Very worthwhile exercise!  Sharon drove and Greg used the spotlight to light up the navigational marks.  We watched the sunrise over the ocean and motor-sailed across to Bimini, making it in nine hours.  An uneventful crossing - just the way we wanted it for our first time.

After fueling and watering up at Blue Water Marina, Greg headed to customs to clear in.  Two hours later, we made our way out to the beach to anchor for the night.  With traffic coming and going, we set two anchors to reduce the rolling, enjoyed a swim and hit the sack.  Monday morning we headed out across the Great Bahama Bank.  Blue water for as far as you can see and no one around.  The Bank is about 12 feet deep and covers many miles.  The shallow water keeps the waves reasonably low.  A rain squall blew through and even that didn't churn up the water that much.

Covering 70 miles on Monday, we stopped near the end of the bank and anchored for the night near the Northwest Passage. This is where the 10 foot deep banks end and the 3000 foot deep "Tongue of the Ocean" begins. All alone, just us and the stars, it was an amazing night.  Tuesday, we headed out again making our way towards New Providence Island, where the city of Nassau is located.  Soon, we entered Northwest Passage and the water depth grew to over 8000 feet!  Covering 60 miles this day, we anchored in the West End of New Providence.  This was a tough anchorage.  We couldn't get the hook to set.  The bottom here is a light layer of sand over rock.  After lowering and raising our windlass (the motor that raises and lowers the big CQR anchor) we gave up and used our secondary anchor which requires manual dropping and raising.  This finally dug in enough to hold us.  We both donned snorkel, mask and fins and went to see how it looked.  In only 10 feet of water that is clear as your drinking water, it was easy to see.  The anchor was set, but not by much.  We both said - ok - looks good since there is no wind, but not sure it would hold in a blow.  Of course, by midnight, the wind was up and changed direction. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night - worrying about whether or not we were staying put.  We did stay put, but decided not to chance another night, so headed off to the East end of New Providence.  (while snorkeling to see the anchor, we saw tons of sand dollars, the puffy kind and large sea stars, as large as 12 inches wide, beautiful!)

Wednesday, we headed south around the island, planning a route to avoid rock and coral heads.  This took us off-shore about five miles then east and back in to Palm Cay Marina.  We needed a place to stay where we could pick up Sharon's sisters who are coming in on Friday for a week.  We had read about this place and it has not disappointed!  A beautiful new marina, club and community, offering wifi(!), a pool, beach, small restaurant, complementary laundry facilities and loaner car.  Absolutely lovely and very accommodating staff.  We are enjoying some land time and provisioning for our visitors.  Greg continues to work hard and has worked through his connectivity.  He is loving Skype!

Enjoying a little R and R on board Dream Catcher.  Doing a few small projects that have been on our list, while waiting for the wind to go more south to make our crossing to the Bahamas.  Today it looks like it might be Saturday or Sunday - we'll see.

We start every day catching up on email, checking work, Greg get's as many calls done as possible so that he isn't on the phone much in the afternoon. Then we try to have much of the afternoon relatively free to do boat chores and other things.

After Boca, we continued south on the waterway and ended up at Bill Bird/Haulover Park Marina just north of Haulover Inlet in North Miami.  We were the only sailboat there, and it was pretty quiet.  We imagine the weekends are busy.  There were charter fishing boats coming and going all day and we shared the enthusiasm of the resident pelicans in seeing their catch.

We walked on the beach and hiked to the Publix (the grocery chain in FL) for last minute provisions.  It was warm and humid, but the breeze kept us a bit cool.  The east wind brought hundreds of Portuguese Man 'O War onto the shore, caught up in the seaweed.  Really cool to look at, don't touch!

We also enjoyed the Food Truck Fest on Tuesday night.  Tacos, sausage sandwiches, gelato and the Grilled Cheese Truck!  Kites, music, kid's rides - good clean fun!

Wednesday morning dawned sunny and hazy.  We filled the water tank, the fuel tank and headed south to check out our options for leaving the comfort of the waterway to head to the Bahamas.  Motored out of Government Cut - the huge Port of Miami entry - to see the sea state and the exit.  Lots of barge and ship traffic and we even saw a sea plane take off!

Disney Wonder Cruise Ship

We decided to continue south into Biscayne Bay, hoping if we got further south, the angle to Bimini would allow us to sail with the Southeast winds.  We had a delightful afternoon of actual sailing!  Both sails out, no engine running, blue-green water - our first real sailing since we left the Chesapeake in October!  It was a delightful afternoon, until the Coast Guard pulled up on our starboard rail.....

We are sailing along loving life and here comes this large gray and orange inflatable Coast Guard vessel and he seems to be getting very close.  Don't you know - some guy comes out of the little house and smiles and asks us if we have ever been boarded by the Coast Guard.  NO!  (of course, Sharon is like - why - what did we do??)  Greg suggests that perhaps we first need to take the sails down and get squared away.  They kindly say, no, and suggest they will simply come aboard and be done with their process by the time we get close to our desired anchorage.

So - two guys come aboard with their big honkin' black coast guardy boots and step on our beautiful cockpit cushions and proceed to stomp all over our home.  They wanted to know if we had firearms on board (No), and said they were there to check our documentation and safety gear.

Now we want to tell you that we have spent untold hours and money assuring we have all the proper documentation and safety gear.  We have our lifejackets, a ditch kit (which is in case we have to abandon ship) filled with all appropriate stuff, we have tethers to strap ourselves in while at sea, we have a life raft, an EPIRB,  a throw rope to go with the Man Overboard button on our chart plotter, in case one of us goes in, and we have this cool new MOM 8A which takes the place of a life ring and takes up less room on the rail.

So - they located all of our safety equipment, they checked all bilge access panels to assure no leaks (and probably to look for contraband, but they didn't say that), they assured our holding tank was set to hold and not to overboard discharge, they located and counted our fire extinguishers, and they appreciated that we were a documented vessel and that we had copies of that documentation which made it easier to pass paperwork back and forth to their "mother-ship".  They asked for our ID's as well.  Sharon kept sailing the boat and chatted with the guy in the cockpit while the other guy went below with Greg to help locate everything.  All in all, they were kind and respectful the entire time - except for the boots, which we suspect they were not going to take off, even if we asked them to.

After what Greg says was an hour and Sharon says was a half hour (which means it was probably somewhere in between), they gave us a written warning because our cool new MOM (Man Overboard Module) is not USCG approved (which if it was would have a little notation on the device).  They suggested we get a throwable floating seat cushion (really?!) to toss to someone if they go overboard.  Of course, Sharon wanted to "discuss" this with them, but all it resulted in was a lecture about USCG approval.  So - our next visit to Walmart, we'll just pick up a floatable seat cushion.  An interesting experience to add to out list of interesting experiences.

We both wish we had thought to snap a photo of the Coast Guard vessel, but I was a bit busy trying to keep my blood pressure in line while still sailing the boat and paying attention to them - and Greg was rolling his eyes!  If we see another one in our travels, we will snap a shot for you.

We had a quiet and dark night (oh the stars you see!) anchored just inside Key Largo at Angelfish Creek, waiting for our perfect crossing day.  And we have accomplished our goal of transiting the intracoastal waterway from Newport to Biscayne Bay.  What a great experience it has been.  We loved it all.

PS - for those of you less computer savvy, note where you see underlined copy in blue or purple and click on it.  It will send you to a web link describing that place or thing.  Enjoy!

We left Hobe Sound after a mostly peaceful night.  The short story is we awoke around 1am hearing a weird sound.  It was sort of like when your phone vibrates for a second or two.  We spent an hour, pulling open all compartments (and there are a lot on an Island Packet), listening intently, you know how you stick your ear there to determine the location of the sound?  We had the floor boards up where all the pumps are, we stuck our ear to the mast, we turned all the electricity off, we turned the batteries off, then on, the noise kept going every 30 seconds.  Then, it would stop and you would think it had stopped, and all of a sudden, it goes again.  It was maddening!  We never found it.  So far, we haven't heard it again, but it hasn't been so quiet since, so who knows (not a great comfort on a sailboat when you can't figure out what it is...)  It might have been coming from outside the boat!

Anyway - anchor up at 7am on Friday, March 6 and off to Boca.  Nineteen bridges later (18 of which were draw bridges!) we slid into Boca Lake for what we planned to be a couple days of hanging out and getting to share time with Courtney and Paolo (daughter and boyfriend).  Within 15 minutes of dropping the hook, along come some guys in a dingy to inform us that their yacht club was going to be taking over the lake this weekend for change of commodore.  This little body of water just off the waterway offers anchorage for maybe 15 sailboats.  Only one end of it is deep enough for us, so there is not a lot of room.  Of course, they said we were welcome to join the raft up (there were to be 50 boats!) and if not, then they apologized for any inconvenience.  (Really?)  So, by 8am the next morning, boats were arriving and anchoring way too close for comfort.  Needless to say, we were not happy campers (or cruisers).  After letting them know what we thought about the whole thing, we took off and luckily were able to get dockage at the nearby Boca Resort - a favorite spot, but more pricy than we were expecting.

So, we motored out of there and across the waterway to tie up at the face dock at Boca Resort.  As we plugged everything in, because of course we would take advantage of the amenities, we noticed the air conditioning wasn't working.  After about 15 minutes of recon, Greg figured out the pump was no longer working.  Oh yay - another project....  The good news is that with a few phone calls, and the lucky convenience of Courtney nearby, we were able to find a new pump at the West Marine in Pompano Beach.  Sharon and Courtney ran over to get the pump while Greg took the old one out and within three hours, we had a new pump to fuel the air-conditioner/heater.  Yay!

We ended the day with a quick load of laundry at Courtney's place, while enjoying a pitcher of her  famously strong margaritas, enjoyed lounging on the new furniture they have purchased over the last few months, had a great meal at Tanzy in Mizner Park and really enjoyed sharing time together.  Thanks Courtney & Paolo for being great hosts, as always!

As we peruse the weather forecast this morning, we have to decide our next stop on the way to Miami.  The wind is blowing out of the east.  Rain squalls are predicted and there is heavy cloud cover.  We aren't going to the Bahamas in the next couple days, so stay tuned.

And we are off!  Left Vero Beach City Marina this morning at 8am.  We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends and dock neighbors, Rick and Kay, as well as other friends we made while there.  But we know we will stay in touch and share future adventures.  We loved our time in Vero and can see why it is sometimes called Velcro Beach - people come and end up sticking because they love it so much!

The week before we left, Greg's mom and sister were in town.  We had a great week sharing time with them.  We returned to McKee Gardens, visited the Art Museum and enjoyed a fair bit of beach time.  It was great to show them around town.

McKee Botanical Gardens

Today was a gorgeous day that gave us an opportunity to try out the boat's new navigation instruments.  While Sharon steered in circles more times than she could count, Greg read manuals and calibrated the new instruments.  The circling is supposed to calibrate the digital compass settings and the wind speed and direction instrument. At least fifteen circles later, he just calibrated manually.  Still not sure it is right, since it seemed that the wind was blowing somewhat more than the 16 recorded on the instrument.  Same for the depth.  We had our old depth sounder set so that it read from the bottom of the keel (showed how much water between our boat and the ground).  Since the installer set this one up, we weren't sure where it was reading, so we tried our best not to find any water below 5 feet (just in case).

One of the cool new things we have is AIS - Automatic Identification System.  This is required for any ships over 300 tons, as well as all passenger ships.  It's a radio transmitter and receiver that sends/receives boat information to other similarly equipped boats. So, when we are sailing at night, or in low visibility, we will see other ships in our area on our chart plotter (screen display in front of the wheel). We can see what it is, how large, how fast and what direction it's traveling.  We are also transmitting a signal, so they can see us too.  Isn't technology a wonderful thing?!

The big news in Vero Beach today is the arrival of the Nina and the Pinta.  These are two replicas of the originals that are touring the US.  They arrived in Vero Beach today and were to be docked right  where we have been docked these last couple months.  We passed them going north as we headed south.  We are kind of glad not to be around for the general public admission happening from the 6th to the 12th.  Check out the website here The Columbus Foundation.

It was a fairly uneventful day otherwise and we dropped the hook in Hobe Sound at about 4pm.  We are about halfway between Vero Beach and Boca Raton, where we will head tomorrow to spend a day with our daughter Courtney and her boyfriend, Paolo.  The trip tomorrow will involve getting through 19 bridges, so it will be a bit more eventful than the four we had to negotiate today.

We just discovered that SPOT didn't save our previous travels.  So we are starting anew.  For those of you just catching up, we left Newport on Sept 23, 2014 and arrived in Florida for Thanksgiving.  Sorry to lose that SPOT data.  We'll try to fix that and assure the track gets saved from now on.