Doug

Friday, December 29, 2018

We left around 9, and after a short 5.1 miles, anchored outside of Hopetown Harbour on Elbow  Cay.  We dinghied to the Sailing Club dock, walked around, bought some still-hot bread, and went to a restaurant on the ocean side for lunch.  There we ran into Mack again (see post above), and bought him a drink.   Back to the boat around 3:00 when the winds picked up above 17 kt, so we decided to stay on the boat.  We were anchored where our chart indicated “poor holding”, but we had no trouble while we were here.

Saturday, December 30

We dinghied into Hopetown and visited the red and white spiraled lighthouse.  It claims to be the last kerosene powered lighthouse in the Bahamas, although there was a sodium vapor lamp hanging nearby, possibly for emergencies.  We went over to the ocean side for a snorkel dive.  Headed back to Olive Oyl for the short (8.4 nautical mile) trip to Marsh Harbour.  We picked up a mooring, since we were expecting a blow, and were planning to leave the boat unattended the following week.  We met up with Angie Wilson and went out for dinner at Colors by the Sea.  Angie has known us and our boat project from the very beginning.  We met her at Shipwright Harbor Marina, where we bought Olive Oyl (ex Marie).  She has seen both the “before” and the “after” of Olive Oyl.

At this point, we would like to apologize for the untimely posting we have done on this blog.  It was our original intention to make a slick presentation of text and pictures documenting our trip.  This has turned out to be difficult due to the poor internet connections we have had with 2G internet service,  and the fact that one of us does the pictures and the other, the narrative.  We have decided to quickly catch up to the present,  and to try to concentrate on keeping up to date at the expense of fewer pictures.  We may add pictures to posts after we post them, so each post may evolve over time.

Wednesday, December 27,  We left Green Turtle Cay bound for Man-O-War Cay,  two hours after low tide, and got out of Settlement Creek without touching bottom.   Shallow draft vessels can take a fairly direct route, but deeper vessels must go out into the Atlantic, briefly, to go “around the Whale”  We probably could have taken the shorter route, but the longer route was only a couple hours longer, and conditions were favorable for playing it safe.   We got to Man-O-War Cay, anchored outside the Harbor and went into town where a fellow named “Mack”, told us where the dinghy dock was and where we should eat (Hybiscus).  Man-O-War is a Loyalist town where much of the economy is based on boatbuilding and repair.   We found a restaurant, ordered a pizza, walked around a bit and headed back to the boat.  We had outboard trouble, and before I had time to do any troubleshooting, Mac showed up in his small fishing boat, and towed us back to Olive Oyl.  It turned out that the fuel hose had come loose from the engine, a simple fix.

Thursday, we went ashore again for a walk around town, and to mail a postcard.  We were told that the post office was only open one hour on either Tuesday or Thursday.  Lunch at Hibiscus, Showers, Laundry, and Dinner at the Marina.  Back to Olive Oyl, planning to leave for Hopetown the next day.

We left Grand Cay after walking around the small town and buying ice and the last loaf of bread in the small bakery.

We motored just a few miles to Double Breasted Cay, and after a few minutes, we noticed we were being followed by another sailboat, Aine. Double Breasted Cay, uninhabited, consists of two long strips of land with a small white sand island in between. We (Olive Oyl and Aine) anchored between the island and one of the strips, and adjusted our anchor twice to make sure we would have enough depth at low tide. The water here is such a wonderful color of turquoise and clear as glass. The beach has fine white sand.

Doug and I swam the few yards to the beach and walked the island. I found a perfect small conch shell about the size of my fist. We met up with Aine’s crew, Michael and his daughter Sarah and had a nice chat. The water was brisk but not too cold for swimming. The next morning was high tide. The island’s beach disappears during high tide so we had to wait a couple of hours to swim again.

Doug spent time snorkeling around the anchorage looking for lobsters or conch without any luck.

Monday, we left before sunrise for Allans-Pensacola Cay. There was little to no wind and the seas were smooth as glass. It was the kind of day where it was difficult to see where the sky ended and the water began.

It was a smooth enough ride that Doug was able to bake a loaf of sour dough bread. We enjoyed it hot out of the oven while we were underway.

Allans-Pensacola is another uninhabited cay. It has several nice white sand beaches and lots of mangrove trees and other brush.

We anchored, did a bit of exploring, fixed dinner and called it a night. Monday night was a bit of a challenge; around midnight, we became inundated by no-see’ums. We have these pests in Virginia, but they normally are only a problem in the hour after sunset. In this new country, they are much more persistent.

Tuesday, we went in search for the Signing Tree, a big tree where boaters over the years have left assorted items with their name or name of their boat. Some people used old buoys, drift wood or floats. Others were pretty elaborately painted. My friend Angie told us we needed to visit here and add our contribution to the tree as well as look for her boat’s name that she carved into an old float in 2013. It took us a couple of tries to find the tree. We dinghied around to the other side of the island, looked in 2 different coves before we found we had passed the tree on the way in, near a beautiful beach. We found Angie’s “Mary T” float and nearby, we hung our “Olive Oyl’ sign (made from leftover plywood from the galley, and leftover paint.

When we got back to Olive Oyl, we discussed ways we could avoid another night persecuted by tiny bugs, and decided we had enough time to motor over to Crab Cay for the night, where we had a magnificent sunset.

Thursday morning we set sail across the Gulf Stream, a trip that was uneventful.  4-5 foot waves, enough wind to sail about halfway across.  Dolphins, Flying Fish, and small Portuguese Man-of-Wars (Men-of War?) We got to the Little Bahama Bank after dark in the vicinity of  White Sand Bank, where we decided to anchor rather than continue on overnight.  Our anchorage was a bit rough, since the wind, current, and waves were all from different directions.  It made sleeping a bit rough, although not impossible.  We found out later that there was another boat, Aine (pronounced Anya) that was anchored nearby the same night.  We saw their green light, but thought it was from a vessel underway.

Friday, we sailed toward Grand Cay and started motor sailing around Noon, so we would get in before sunset.  Most of the trip was in 20+ feet, but the last 10 miles were less than 12, some less than 8.  Clearly a time to pay attention to detail.  Using Navionics SonarChart, we made it into the harbor without any trouble.  We talked to a couple fishermen, and tied ourselves up to the deepest, biggest slip in Rosie’s Marina.  No one contested our decision, so there we stayed all night.  We found a thriving fishing village,  half fishermen and half fishing trips for tourists.  There was one other sailboat (Aine) at anchor.  I must say Olive Oyl looked unusually, good tied up to a simple dock with no other sailboats in sight.

We cleared in with Customs, Immigration, and Health, all the same person, rather informal.  Did we come from anywhere that had the plague?  No.   We had dinner at Rosie’s Restaurant (Chicken, Conch or Lobster), Got our phones working on the Bahamian phone system, surfed the web a bit at slow speed, hoisted our Bahamian flag, and called it a night.

The people are very friendly and clearly do not see a lot of sailboats, at least at this time of year.  No one tried to sell us anything.  The water is very clear, allowing one to see to the bottom when the sun doesn’t reflect too much.  Navigation is done largely by sight by the experienced (nearly everyone but us) .  We can see every fish and beer can on the bottom of the marina.  I reflect on those times, I dropped some important piece of hardware overboard while in Virginia, to be left there forever.  Here, you would simply go in after it; the water temperature is 70 degrees F.

We left Beaufort, N.C. on Sunday, 11/25 with great wind for sailing. Seas were pretty mild until Tuesday when waves were about 4 feet. No cooking was done on that day.It was cheese and crackers for dinner. We averaged about 110 miles each day which for our little boat is pretty good.

We caught our first fish on Monday it was a little Tunny which did not taste great.

We saw dolphins everyday. We did 3 hour watches each night and had a beautiful bright 1/2 moon following us. We arrived in St. Augustine, Florida yesterday evening at dusk and are now on a mooring ball at the Municipal Marina. The best part is that it is warm!! I was in shorts today. St Augustine is a beautiful little city that seems very friendly to cruisers. We even had a sea turtle swimming around our dinghy. Our tachometer stopped working reliably on this trip but we found a perfect, hardly used one at Sailor Exchange for only $20. Doug is installing it as I type this.  Today we walked around town and did some sight seeing. We will probably stay another day or 2 then head down the coast to West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale to prepare for crossing to the Bahamas. Stay tuned.