SUMMER SAILING

Dinghy dock in Cohasset Harbor at start of Maine trip, Ken & John


View of Damariscotta from our mooring, storm brewing


RISING TIDE squeezed into Damariscove; eventually there were 4 boats here for the night

RISING TIDE and crew went on a few cruises this summer, after getting a well-deserved bottom cleaning, bottom painting, and refinished teak trim on the cabin, cockpit and toerail.

We sailed to Marblehead and spent a few days there, visiting family and friends. We watched fireworks over Marblehead harbor, walked through Old Town, and unfolded the bike to travel to the West Shore to our old neighborhood.

The next trip was an invitation to join a group from the Hull Yacht Club (thanks Tom and Jean!) to sail to Provincetown for a BIG lobster feed on the beach. The lobsters were brought from Hull--76 total I believe--and there were about 10-15 boats. We anchored off of a quiet beach near the lighthouse within sight of the town, and had some other fun activities including a Sunday morning pancake breakfast on one of the powerboats. The weather was perfect with good wind and lots of sun. Hopefully there will be a repeat of this next summer.

Shortly after P-Town, RISING TIDE sailed for Maine with Ken and John Campbell on board. They did day trips up the coast to Boothbay Harbor. Along the way there was one planned rendezvous with Dick McLeod on his Egg Harbor SUNDANCE, and another with friends we met in North Carolina, Mark & Julie on the Tayana 37 RACHEL.

John left for home on the end of the first week and I joined the crew. We had a hurricane bearing down on Maine, most unusual, so decided to sail up one of the long rivers in the area. We headed for Damariscotta and it was a perfect place to be in a storm. It’s less than a day’s sail from Boothbay and has a small supply of free moorings for visitors provided by a boatyard there. There are lots of small shops, restaurants, pubs, and you can get to two grocery stores after a 10 minute walk.

We spent 3 days in Damariscotta, largely out of the storm as we had hoped, and were able to meet up with both the Cassidys (sailing friends from our Catboat days and on, who now live in Maine) and the Olneys (friends from Cohasset who moved to Maine) while there.

For the middle of our second week in Maine, we had planned to take aboard Susan & Barry Perkins, new friends from Massachusetts who we met in Florida last winter. They wisely waited until the hurricane had moved on and we picked them up in Southport. Just before Susan & Barry arrived we ran into another couple from our winter trip, Susan & Tom Maddigan, who were also just arriving by car to spend some time sailing with some of their friends. Small world!

With our extra crew we sailed for Damariscove, an island not far from Southport. It is an uninhabited island most of the time, with just one former coast guard building used intermittently by two families. The harbor in Damariscove is narrow and deep and provides good protection. The island was settled long ago, before the Pilgrims settled Plymouth, as a fishing and trading post. Even though Ken did not like the sides of the harbor being 10 ft. from our anchorage, we spent the night and the next day went on an interesting hike through the south end of the island on well marked trails.

The weather cooperated throughout the Perkins’ visit and we were able to sail, anchor several times in pristine coves, dig mussels, buy bargain-priced lobster, see seals, transit Townsend Gut, and get them safely back to their car.

At the end of our loosely planned two weeks in Maine we were expecting another storm, this one a tropical storm that never got strong-enough winds to be a hurricane, but nonetheless needed watching. We headed back southeast, and ducked into Princes Point just north of Portland where friends--the MacLeods--were able to get us a secure mooring for a few days. Barb & Dick also fed us, let us sleep in their guest room, and helped us to get to a car rental place to get a vehicle and attend a wedding in New Hampshire that we had double-booked for this last weekend in Maine. Even though we tested their hospitality, they held up, and we enjoyed spending some quality and quantity time with them!

We eventually sailed back into Cohasset on Tuesday evening of the third week, arriving when the tide was out (an especially low moon tide) and probably had only inches under our keel as we entered the harbor. But we made it without any problems. New England is definitely a great place to sail in.

Our cruising for 2008-2009 has been everything I thought it would be. Ken and I have great memories and pictures from all these travels and we have accomplished what we set out to do, after day-dreaming about it for a long time. Now that RISING TIDE is back in her harbor, we have talked with a broker about selling her and maybe taking a new tack next year with a motorboat (gasp! a stinkpot!). At any rate, the broker, John Proctor, can be reached at lawsonyachts@aol.com,
if you know of anyone looking for a seaworthy 37’ sailboat.

We’d love to hear from any of you who are taking cruises this fall and winter and we hope you keep us “in the loop” with your plans and travels. We’ll be staying close by the fire and working on some new day-dreams.

JUNE 7 - 19 THE FINAL 500

One of the Victorians in Cape May, NJ, now an inn



Dock at Fishers Island, NY



Dacey onboard and posing in front of the Statue of Liberty



Atlantic City Life Guards at the beach (note the fog rolling in on the right)

Jun 7 Leaving Annapolis with our friend Ann Dacey (from West Virginia) we found good weather for the first few days. We also reconnected with ANDROS, a boat from upstate New York that we first met in these waters back in October. There is a new boat, PAVITI TERN, that was in Annapolis and is going the same way we are, destination Westport, MA. Mike, the skipper, is single-handing, and his boat is a 1930s classic sailboat.

June 11 We have arrived in Atlantic City, the best stop before we sail overnight for Block Island. From here we plan to clear two of the shipping lanes outside of New York City before dark and then will just have to pass through one more in the night.

But first, we need to get good weather to leave for a 160 mile trip to the northeast, and even though it is sunny and warm, the wind is coming from the north and then from the east, and that is not good. We ended up in Atlantic City for four days.

Dacey and I are making the best of our visit to the Jersey shore. We took a self-guided tour of the Victorian houses in Cape May the day before we got to Atlantic City, and have been to the casinos, the boardwalk, and the beach in AC. With Ken and Mike (PAVITI TERN) we’ve found some good seafood and beer near the Aquarium docks and there are groceries across the river near the St.George Thoroughfare. There is also a good anchorage there (St. George Thor.), within sight of the casinos but out of most of the traffic.

June 15 We finally left Atlantic City with a east-south-east wind and sailed overnight under a pink half-moon (it came up at 12:45 am and then got covered by clouds at 2 am). We avoided the traffic in the shipping lanes, but we couldn’t get to Block Island due to the wind changing to be more north east as the wee hours passed. At 8 am Ken decided to re-direct to New York City. It might have been dark on the second day before we reached land if we had continued the way we were going. But even going to NYC it took us until 6:30 pm to get just outside the harbor and anchor off of Sandy Hook, in northern New Jersey.

June 17 To get some rest and to catch the best current we slept in and started through the passage to get through New York Harbor in mid-day. It was mostly cloudy but there was almost no traffic (except the Staten Island Ferries which seem to go every 15 minutes!) and we were fascinated by the sights, passing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the whole east side of Manhattan, La Guardia Airport, etc. This was definitely an interesting day, even though this part of the trip was unplanned. We ended up anchoring for the night off of Long Island, in a shallow cove all by ourselves. Dacey has found her niche as a wonderful ship’s cook and she prepared another delicious dinner for us.

June 18 This was our best day for sailing of all the days Dacey has been on board. We had a good wind, Long Island Sound was flat, and even though it rained most of the day, we made good progress and sailed between the Connecticut shore and the Long Island shore until we got to Fishers Island. We really like Fishers Island! It looks like a small Cape or Maine town, just a couple dozen boats in West Harbor, and friendly people on shore. We got to stay for the night at the fuel dock as they had just closed, and a passerby offered a ride to wherever we needed to go. Dacey can connect up with a sister who is driving through Connecticut this evening if she takes the ferry to New London. We’ll miss her, but she has been onboard for 12 days and she has a family party to get to in Massachusetts.

Fishers Island has 200 year-round inhabitants and 4000 summer residents, we were told by another friendly islander that gave us a ride to the Pequot Inn after Dacey left. Some of the summer people have filtered in at this point, enough to make the Inn a “happening” place on a Thursday night. The bar/restaurant reminded me of a ski lodge and yacht club dining room combined.

June 20 We motored into Duxbury Harbor at 8:15 pm today, completing our 8 month trip in drizzle but good visibility. We plan to get RISING TIDE hauled out and
paint the bottom in the coming week. The weather is threatening to be a full-blown nor’easter for a few days so we are happy to be in a snug harbor. The past two days took us through Newport where we stopped for one night but didn’t go ashore. The weather in this period was very foggy and we had to cross ferry lanes to Block Island but by mid-day today it had cleared. We couldn’t stop in Mattapoisett as we had planned (Onset as a second choice also was scrapped because of the impending storm). The current in the Cape Cod Canal was favorable and we made good time from Newport to Duxbury.

We’ll be reassessing our future trips as we adjust to mostly shore life for the next few months. We had a good boat to take this voyage in and we (the crew) held up, for the most part, through good and bad weather. The last three weeks were the most challenging mentally as we approached the end of the journey and had difficult weather conditions to cope with. Gone are the days of consistent warmth and no rain, returning us to New England’s ever-changing weather. As we put our socks and shoes back on and pull out the slickers from the hanging locker, we end our trip and wonder what the future will bring.

MAY 28 - JUNE 6 The “Rising Tide Awards”

Crab buyer on the docks, Oxford, MD, with blue crabs



Crab lunch in Oxford, MD with all the fixins'



Kids getting briefed before their trip on a "pirate boat" in Annapolis


AWARDS

Most Memorable: sailing in light air across the clearest water ever, the Bahama Bank east of Bimini, for a day and a half in crystal clear water, seeing only a few boats in the distance and sand, starfish, and small silver fish below us

Best Harbor or Anchorage: Faber Cove near Ft. Pierce Inlet, FL

Best Food: tie for conch salad in George Town, Exumas (all freshly made while you watch) and fish fry in Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, put on by the church youth group

Best Marina: Bohicket Creek Marina, South Carolina

Best Laundromat: free one, for boaters, at Charleston Maritime Center, SC, where we watched preparations for an outdoor wedding while we did the wash

Best Live Music: Bahamian Junkanoo bands, they perform at Christmas and New Years in Nassau, as a parade, and various other times of the year as individual bands (we watched one in George Town, Exumas)

Most Feared Waters: Alligator River entrance at south end of Albermarle Sound, NC

Worst Guidebook: Pavlidis’ “The Exuma Guide”, 2007 edition with numerous references to “this may change after 1999.…”

Best Guide: Explorer Charts (with annotations for groceries, laudromats, fuel, etc.) for the three different areas of the Bahamas

Most Likely to Go Back To: Eastern Shore Maryland to explore some more; but if we “win the lottery” we’d fly to the Exumas to see the annual April “Family Regatta“, the locals’ sailing festival and races that we missed this year

Good Samaritan Award: Brian on GOTTA LIFE who saw us aground, anchored his sailboat and came over with his daughter sounding the surrounding water, in his dinghy, to pull us off in the Matanzas River, near St. Augustine

All-Star Support Team: Mike Powers for keeping Belva and Ken Sr. up to date with our blog, Captain John Campbell for sending engine parts, etc., Steve Ward for phone advice and providing parts, our son Pete for forwarding mail and taking care of our house

On-The-Spot-Help When You Need It Award: Barry and Susan Perkins on SWAN who returned again (and again) to Key Biscayne while our engine was disabled and helped us to move RISING TIDE between anchorage and sea wall as needed

Best Local Business: Sun Electronics (solar panels and related products), Miami

Worst Local Business: West Marine, various locations

Encouragement Award: Frank and Linda Cassidy, veterans of this route (and much further travels) who got us interested in the Bahamas in the first place



May 28 We have just a few places left to visit that are new to us before we retrace our steps through Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We crossed the Chesapeake to Oxford, Maryland on the Eastern Shore, in the Choptank River. We also visited St. Michaels, Maryland, which was not far if we stayed in the Choptank, slipped into Broad Creek and then anchored in San Domingo Creek. Both towns are full of older 1700s and 1800s buildings, restaurants, boat yards, and crab fishermen. Oxford is a little smaller, and St. Michaels has a museum on the waterfront with several buildings and quite a few boats in the water and on land that they are exhibiting.

One of the boat yards, in Oxford, has an interesting method of building and repairing wooden boats. They use Kevlar rope instead of frames and it is set in a perpendicular routed groove in the wood planking and fiberglassed over. This yard, Cutts and Case, also has a lot of wooden boats in their yard, and they even have the power boat FOTO on display. It’s the boat the famous photographer Morris Rosenfield used (around the mid 1900s?).

We thoroughly enjoyed the area, and were treated to a lot of bird activity (one swan flew by at the same time each morning just before sunrise -- they make an unusual sound as they fly) and we learned a lot about the oystering and crabbing in the area.

June 2 (Tuesday) Our friend Ann Dacey is coming from West Virginia to join us for our last week of sailing. We positioned ourselves in Annapolis today and plan on completing a few projects while we are here, before she arrives on Saturday. The weather is very warm today, and the wind is light. The forecast is for thunderstorms each afternoon this week and by Thursday it should get cooler.

We are anchored in Back Creek which runs alongside Eastport, which is to Annapolis as Cambridge is to Boston. We can walk across Eastport in about 15 minutes and cross a bridge into Annapolis. Both places are interesting, and Eastport has a good share of funky houses and local restaurants/bars. When we bought RISING TIDE in 2003 it was at a marina in Back Creek.

June 5 Lots of rain today. Nonetheless it is laundry day and we loaded up our dinghy with laundry bags and headed to the main harbor in Annapolis. We’ll bring the clean, dry clothes back in plastic trash bags to keep it dry. The nice thing about doing laundry while cruising is you often get in a good place where you can go have a drink at a pub while the laundry washes, check out some of the shops while it dries, and then since you’re already “in town” you can stay and have dinner out. If there are at least 2 washers and 2 dryers this can be done with a minimum of time actually spent in the laundromat. Since we have still been wearing mostly shorts, tank tops and no shoes, two loads every two weeks just about does it!

We walked quite a bit today, probably 3-4 miles. We used the bus system in Annapolis for part of our traveling, but the traffic was backed up so we found walking was actually faster as the Friday afternoon influx was jamming the roads. A single-hander on a wooden sailboat (PAVITI TERN) from Westport, Mass. joined us in our travels today after we met him in the laundromat.

June 6 We’re getting ready to leave tomorrow for Chesapeake City near the Delaware/Maryland border.

MAY 16 - 28 GETTING CLOSE TO HOME!

Too bad we left before the BBQ at Oriental, but we heard all about how the pigs are raised and the pork is cooked



Our new friend Dave from VAL DE RI cooking out at Welcome Center, Dismal Swamp Canal (Dave and his crew also shared the storm anchorage with us in the lower Alligator River)



Fresh flowers and fresh thoughts, Irvington,VA

May 16 The climate in North Carolina is ahead of Massachusetts so there are good vegetables at the farmer’s markets. We are always looking for fresh food for the boat and got some good vegetables and herbs in Oriental at their Saturday morning market. Then we headed north, figuring we are only 4 days from Virginia. Wrong! The weather brought the whole area a vicious wind and heavy rain, and the wind didn’t let up for 3 days. We had to backtrack from a bridge that couldn’t open due to the high winds and then didn’t open until May 20. We waited it out in a “wilderness” area with no phone coverage, no homes, and not even any boat traffic to watch as a distraction because everyone held up wherever they were until the bridge was working.

May 21 Once we were moving again we made sure we got to Elizabeth City, NC, one of our favorite stops from our trip south. The city offers free docks for 48 hours, a welcoming cocktail party, and a rose for each woman at the party! The city has a compact downtown, right near the docks, and larger stores about 2 miles away, which is doable with a bicycle. I wonder how many other towns anywhere offer as much. Being at the dock fosters the exchange of information between boats and we met some new people there that we will be keeping in touch with.

The next night after Elizabeth City we also had a free dock at the Welcome Center on the Dismal Swamp Canal. The state line for Virginia is just 2 miles from here.

May 25 We headed up the Rappahannock River in Virginia, planning a stop to visit people we met in the Bahamas. It’s a pretty sail to Irvington, although it was 15 miles up the river. The creek in Irvington branches out into about 6 or 7 other creeks and it is interesting to explore. We did this in a dinghy, but there is enough water to go way up with a sailboat. There is little commercial activity, and lots of homes and boats. You can walk to town from one of the marinas, about 2 miles, and there may be another closer way to get there, from a launching ramp in one of the creeks. However, it turned out our friends did not live in this part of Irvington! They are back down the Rappahannock and up another creek. We did get there in another 2 days and stayed at their private dock. We feel that we now know the area well and it is very worthwhile to wander this area’s deep creeks and coves.

May 27 We left our friend’s dock in Indian Creek and headed north once again. We passed the Potomac River. To go up the Potomac from the mouth is 107 miles to Washington DC and you evidently can get up there and stay at a marina or anchor. Sounds like a good side trip for another time. We continued across the state line into Maryland and entered the Patuxent River. We anchored in Solomon’s, another creek system which branches out once inside and has MANY marinas, mostly with sailboats, and not that obtrusive to the creeks and natural areas. Where we are anchored (Back Creek) there is wifi out over the water, compliments of the Holiday Inn, also not that obvious from the water but offering amenities to boaters. We went ashore late our first night here and had drinks and dessert at their bar.

We’re planning some side trips to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and a few days in Annapolis before we head out of the Chesapeake area. The weather swings from cool (we ran the cabin heater while waiting for the Alligator River Bridge) to very hot so we want to time our stay to enjoy some summer weather but not get too much heat and buggy conditions. The cruise is winding down!

May 7 - 15 Unexpected Benefits

Scene from Charleston, SC, historic district with settlement around 1680



Typical scene from a tranquil anchorage, this one in SC, with shellfish warning



After our overnight sail from Charleston SC to Southport NC (see sign overhead)


May 7 We made a return visit to Beaufort, SC, today, a quick one as we were allowed an hour at the dock after refueling. It was enough time to walk around, get some fresh bagels for tomorrow’s breakfast and a few items at a kitchen store we had visited last time. We also got a paper, as we still feel out-of-touch with the news since returning from the Bahamas.

The remainder of the week was spent motoring on the ICW in great weather, making our way to Charleston. We met up with former Cohasset residents Julie and Bob Motley there. They live in that area now and have a restaurant right in Charleston, near the marina we stayed in, Charleston Maritime Center. They gave us a short tour of nearby James Is. and Johns Is., we ate at a seafood restaurant and caught up on their news and ours. Another treat in Charleston was getting to bike ride through the historic district streets on Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, before the tourists were up and about.

May 11 After a 22 hour motor-sail from Charleston through rain and close-by thunderstorms that lasted for hours, we arrived in Southport, NC at 8:30 a.m. We cut off several days of the ICW and we escaped the hot weather of South Carolina. Southport is a great place, with a close downtown, interesting historic plaques all around, and a funky mostly-outdoor restaurant called the Provisions Company that has great seafood (Southport also has several other good places to eat). We pigged out there; you never know when you’ll get a good meal again! We watched another thunderstorm approach and bring lots of rain, but the thunder and lightening went another way.

May 13 We had a very bad start to this day. We were anchored in a creek near Topsail Beach, NC, and we had bow and stern anchors out. We had done this to avoid being blown into the shallow edge of the creek, even though it meant that we had the wind pushing us sideways all night. We really had a quiet night, with very little wind, but in the morning the wind doubled in intensity and we still had to get up two anchors and avoid the sides of the creek. It resulted in a fire drill that threatened to go on and on. We’d get up one anchor and then not quite the other before we are aground and had to put out the anchors again and winch ourselves with the anchor lines to get back into deeper water. Then repeat. Eventually some combination of winching and anchoring worked and we got out of there.

This was followed, thankfully, with an uneventful trip to a very wide, deep anchorage that is part of the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune for that night. We have, by the way, seen lots of great wildlife on this stretch, including lots of nesting osprey, dolphins playfully jumping clear out of the water, egrets, and other stately wading birds.

May 15 We have a free dock in Oriental, NC, for the day and night, complements of the town. Our plans from here are to cover the rest of the state in the next week and pass into Virginia over the Dismal Swamp part of the ICW.

So upon reflection, which seems to happen when writing the blog, I am seeing a pattern of surprise benefits from this trip, bubbling to the surface. Ken and I are definitely learning to work as a team, even with rocky patches now and again (see May 13 and read between the lines). We have had wonderful health since leaving Massachusetts, staying outside most of every day and eating very little processed food. We are entertained by the simple things, and haven’t missed the TV shows we used to watch or constant updates on the stock market. We are meeting wonderful, lively people who we hope to continue to see, maybe getting them to visit us back in Massachusetts. We are learning about the stars, the birds, and the fish that inhabit this part of the world. And my favorite, the times we travel with our feet or bicycle wheels, off the boat and getting exercise or supplies for dinner. There are a lot of people who don’t have cars and who we now traveling among when we hit the streets. We smile and nod and consider it interesting being car-less for eight months.

In Charleston we decided to walk the margins of a soccer field and connecting streets to get a substantial load of groceries back to our boat. Oh yeah, we were pushing a shopping cart…..…and passing motorists looked and you could tell by their expressions that they wondered if we were homeless and had our possessions in the cart, or if we had stolen it. (We did return it!) This was Ken’s idea and he wasn’t the least reluctant about it.

Enjoy the warming weather wherever you are!

APRIL 26 - MAY 7 BOOKS & TUNES

Remains of mansion Dungeness, Cumberland Is.



Ken on ocean beach, Cumberland Island



Pirates at the Shrimp Fest, Fernandina Beach

Apr 27 Fernandina Beach, Florida, was our “home” for a week, a surprise since we had just planned to spend 24 hours. Our engine did not start on Monday this week and we needed in the end to send out the starter to have it worked on -- again -- and we borrowed a generator to help keep the batteries charged for the last few days of the week. So one additional week in Florida while the weather continued to be perfect. Tough! Fernandina Beach is a large town, on Amelia Island, with great restaurants and shopping. They also had their biggest celebration of the year while we were there, the Shrimp Fest. By the time we left we were on first name basis with several of the locals and we had a front row seat for the Fest fireworks set off over the river where we had a mooring.

One thing we did this week was squeeze in additional time for reading. We have books we brought from home, some we traded with other cruisers (a favorite in that category is An Embarassment of Mangoes, about Canadian boaters who sail to the Bahamas and beyond), some we get from “take one/leave one” libraries at marinas and laundromats. We got a few new books too, mostly tied in with where we were at the time. A mystery based in Cape Fear, NC is one, and two autobiographies, Pat Conroy’s The River is Wide and the 1930s book Cross Creek based in rural Florida. Our down time on the boat is usually spent watching birds/people/boats with binoculars, or planning and executing “happy hour” or reading -- not necessarily in that order!

Apr 30 We took a side trip by dinghy (3.5 miles each way) to Cumberland Island. The Cumberland Island National Seashore maintains the grounds of an old estate, Dungeness, built in the mid 1880s, and several trails. You can also access miles of beautiful unbuilt ocean beach there.

May 3 This is our first full day in Georgia and the start of several where we will be careful of the shallow ICW here. We need to travel between the slack at the end of low tide and the slack at the end of high tide, before it starts getting low again. We passed the Georgia islands Cumberland Island, Jekyl Island, St. Simons Island, Sapelo Island, St. Catherine’s Island since leaving Fernandina Beach. There is no one on the Georgia ICW right now that we know, and in fact, very few boats traveling our speed and direction at all. The wildlife is the best -- dolphins, alligators, eagles, many birds that we can only guess at identifying, wild horses, sounds of sheep last night on a deserted island next to where we anchored (that we did not investigate!).

When we need extreme down time, at the end of a day spent in the fresh air, navigating shallow rivers and canals, we have our tunes. Our son Justin set up 500+ songs on an ipod for Ken before we left. The music is a combination of bluegrass (my suggestion), sea chanteys, female singers Ken likes, and lots of music Justin listens to and thought we’d like. It’s very eclectic and fun. We have added some Bahamian CDs to our mix of entertainment. KB, Ancient Man, Peanuts Taylor and Trez Hepburn are now brought out when we have enough energy for foot tapping and more energetic moves.

May 6 We crossed into South Carolina today and passed Daufuskie Island and anchored near Hilton Head Island. Last night we spent a night at a marina and after a short walk were in Thunderbolt, a suburb or Savannah. There was a great marine store there and a friendly restaurant, Tubby’s Tank House (don‘t you just love the name)! There have been thunderstorms the past two afternoons, just like in July at home.

OUR NEW ADOPTED STATE: FLORIDA

BONUS PHOTO Ken as Mr. April for the next Swimsuit Edition



Haulover Canal Bridge in background with Ken at helm of RISING TIDE



Famous Travis Co. hardware store in Cocoa Village; trusty folding bike in foreground



Alligator swimming away from us in the Merritt Is. Haulover Canal


APRIL 19 - 26

Apr 19 Vero Beach in mid-coast Florida is a wonderful pit-stop. There are free buses to shopping, it’s a short bike ride to the beach and the boutiques there. The vegetation is lush. And the showers and laundry at the marina are well-maintained and numerous. The next time we’re there I’ll make sure we get to the city Art Museum. There is also a live theater and a huge park. These last 3 places are all within walking distance of the marina.

Apr 21 We got to see Jim (my brother) and Riko today, and catch up on news since we were in Cape Canaveral area last. We got some mail from home, the first since early January. Jim has always said he doesn’t know why everyone isn’t trying to move to Florida, and this visit is proving him right…….

It’s been 12 weeks (almost 3 months!) in Florida counting before and after the Bahamas. We are enjoying the delightful weather -- it’s been sunny, warm, and the winds are light and comfortable since we returned. There is a lot of wildlife near the anchorages and marinas we’ve been at. Ken spotted a few alligators, mostly one at a time, including one slowly and methodically swimming from dock to dock in Cape Canaveral (Merritt Island). Among the birds we’ve seen this time are pink flamingoes. We haven’t seen many insects (which is good). The water is dark and mysterious compared to the Bahamas, but it’s supporting lots of fish and wild “critters”. If it weren’t for the shoaling in parts of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), we’d be very happy! We have been stuck on the bottom several times since we returned two weeks ago.

Apr 26 Northern Florida along the ICW is dotted with small homes -- fishing camps -- and interesting larger homes. Many of them have docks. Looks like a great way of life! We are now at Amelia Island, the last real estate in Florida before we cross to Georgia. We’re back to motoring a lot since we’re in canals much of the time. We hope to get Ken a net and have him try casting it and getting some shrimp in some of the side creeks coming up.

APRIL 13 - APRIL 18 LOOKING BACK

Carol & Dave (SYRINGA)


Jack & Z (KITE)


Jack & Peggy (FREE SPIRIT)


Ken, Mary, and Neil in Treasure Cay

Tom & Susan (BRILLIANT)


Debi & Mike (LOS GATEOWS)


Apr. 13 We made our crossing successfully and spent two days and nights in Ft. Pierce, FL catching up on sleep and visiting Barry and Susan (SWAN) not far from there at Nettles Island.

Apr. 15 We’ve moved to Vero Beach, and maybe it’s seeing Barry and Susan prepare to change gears (Barry has health issues and so they will be putting their boat in a yard here instead of sailing it back to Massachusetts) but it makes me want to reflect on our trip and our preparation for it. Barry and Susan were mentors for us in January and February, answering a lot of our questions about sailing in another country.

Here’s some of what we learned and what we did that may or may not have been reported yet:

We both enjoy seeing all the various types of sail and power boats that spend the winter in the Bahamas. We have a list of 225 boats and owners that were recorded in George Town, Exumas, this winter. This doesn’t include all the other boats we saw in the other areas of the Bahamas. Ken will spend the rest of our trip quizzing me on each boat that we see on our way back that is familiar to him!

No, we didn’t get tired of wearing shorts or bathing suits and going barefoot everyday. I don’t think there was even one day when it rained for more than 15 minutes and this only happened once or twice. Sun and temperatures in the high 70s were a constant. Yes, we did have too much wind but the Bahamians assured us this was an unusual winter.

In most of the Bahamas they don’t have regular water. They have R/O water which is reverse osmosis fresh water created from salt water. It doesn’t taste very good.
The baked goods in the Bahamas are great: baked bread, coconut pastries, meat pastries. Buying bread, cookies or crackers from the U.S. are very expensive (as is almost everything imported from the U.S. so we stocked up before we came).

We can communicate with other boaters we know on VHF radio easily if they are within 10 miles or so. We can communicate with the boater community as a whole each morning on the Cruisers Net, also on VHF, and find out what’s going on for entertainment, what’s expected for weather, and who needs to share a taxi ride to the airport (etc.). It is not easy to call home. It takes coordination of finding a phone booth, getting a phone card from Batelco before the office closes at 5 pm, remembering to get the dinghy gassed up to make the trip to the other side of the large harbor where the phones are, a separate trip since people we are calling are not home before 5 pm.

Sometimes there are no phones, no banks, no supplies, no conch chowder that night even though it is on the menu. Sometimes there are banks but they only open one day a week. Sometimes you have to hitchhike to the auto parts store to see if they might have the part for your boat engine. But through all this Bahamians are super friendly, trying to make you feel at home, very polite and thoughtful when you need assistance.

We didn’t catch much fish to eat but we got offered just-cleaned mahi-mahi from the dock the first week in the Bahamas, ate some grouper speared by a fellow cruiser, ate whole fried grunt and snapper (skin and all) and wished we had more. We saw thousands of fish while snorkeling, and often were greeted by dolphins surfing our bow wave as we neared a harbor after a long sail offshore.

We have been very close up to sharks, at dinghy docks, near fish-cleaning stations, and snorkeling. We got a “lookie-bucket” and could take it out in the dinghy and see the bottom in any type of water, and also check our anchor with it. There were almost no sea birds around during our time in the Bahamas, but Ken fed the Bananaquit (tiny land birds) with sugar on his palm.

The rum in the Bahamas is good and can be mixed with many different fruit juices and mixers. Having two months to try and find our favorite combination was a daunting task, but one we were up to! We recommend finding a beach bar with “rake & scrape” (local) music playing and all the rum drinks will taste great.

It is a challenge to anchor every night in shallow water and get a good night’s sleep. We never did drag our anchor in the Bahamas but one time spent 2 hours “bumping” on the bottom while the tide was low and the waves choppy. We heard bad stories of boats sliding back into other boats and causing damage. The good news is that the bottom is almost always sand and the results of a boat dragging anchor is usually just moving to another sandy area before the anchor catches again.

The Bahamian experiences that we would definitely like to repeat:

--Junkanoo performance

--Snorkeling (we missed going to the “World’s 3rd longest reef”, in Andros, due to wind)

--Peace & Plenty Hotel or St.Francis Resort, both in George Town. Places to have a meal, access wifi, watch the ocean, and feel good peaceful vibes.

--Sailing from the deep (3000+ ft.) teal blue Bahamian waters to the 10-30 ft. crystal clear turquoise banks in a matter of minutes

BAHAMAS REPRISE

Don't tell our dermatologist about our tans!


View of RISING TIDE from the Canadian yacht FREE SPIRIT


"Waterfront Shack in Man 'O War Eastern Harbor, Abacos


This is being sent from Vero Beach FL -- we made it back on Monday 4/13/09.

MARCH 28 - APRIL 12

We are in our final days in the Bahamas. It seems fitting that we should get a chance to find, again, those experiences that we enjoyed the most while we have been here. So to wind up our trip we have been searching out more local bakeries with Bahamian bread, participating in Bahamian music/food/culture events, snorkeling “one last time“, and relocating some boats that we have seen or known while down here.

March 28 We bumped into people we met earlier in Warderick Wells, Peggy and Jack on FREE SPIRIT from Ontario, and our two boats left Nassau early this day bound for northern Eleuthera. We will only be in one spot in Eleuthera, Royal Island, but going there gives us a good jumping off spot for the Abacos, and we get to check off one more island chain that we have visited in the Bahamas. We had plenty of wind for our sail and wonderful weather. The next day was an early departure since we needed to cover 53 miles -- probably a 10-hr. sail -- and it was a wild weather day with high winds, large following seas added to by easterly rollers leftover from last week’s weather. At the end of the sail as we approached the Abacos, we were greeted by about a dozen dolphins, who stayed by our boat for about 3 miles, swimming up and back and riding the ocean swells and our boat’s bow waves!

March 30 We are spending several days in Marsh Harbor in the mid-Abacos as it is the largest town here and has a very protected harbor. We should see some other cruisers here that we know, and we still have FREE SPIRIT to play with and share stories with. We got back in contact with AQUILA, new friends that we shared Christmas Eve with in Florida and then got separated from when Barb got injured and laid-up a few days later.

April 2 We have planned a side-trip to Treasure Cay, not really a separate cay but on the same island that Marsh Harbor is on. Good friends Mary and Neil Rice have invited us to visit them at their second home there. After a 3-hour sail we found a marina, a well-protected small harbor, and a large number of homes and businesses at Treasure Cay. There is also a 3 ½ mile-long pristine beach and free internet in the harbor. What more could you ask for?

It’s so easy to meet people when you’re with vacationing people in the warm climates! Mary and Neil were already booked the first night we arrived so we took advantage of the Pizza Night at the outdoor bar, part of the marina. We became fast friends with a couple we shared a table with (it was crowded). They had just flown in from North Carolina for a long-weekend in their private plane. It’s the kind of place you can bump into people again, so in the semi-darkness the next night returning from dinner with Neil and Mary in their golf cart, we were hailed by our pizza friends, and saw them again in their boat in the harbor.

We were treated royally by the Rices and enjoyed cocktails on their balcony and a delicious dinner out. We got to discuss Marblehead news and people, and catch up on what children and grandchildren are doing.

Treasure Cay was a little more up-scale than what we have seen in other places in the Bahamas, but one morning we got to experience Bahamian small-town entertainment as the primary children from a local school were dressed in costumes from the Wizard of OZ and were parading through the small shopping area and singing songs from the show. There were about 25 students, and they stopped to act out some of the parts.

April 5 There is more strong wind predicted for the upcoming week so during the short lull we sailed to Man ’O War Cay where there is another very well protected harbor. Most of the cays surrounding the Sea of Abaco are short sails from each other and the Sea itself is fairly calm and shallow. Man ‘O War is known for boat-building and furniture-making. A few days later we sailed to Great Guana Cay. We did meet up with BRIAR PATCH and SERENADE, boats we have been looking for.

April 9 This was a perfect day and we headed north from Great Guana Cay, stopping in between cays to snorkel. It was calm, warm, and the reef we stopped at had tons of fish, fan coral, and other types of coral. I saw a shark, a turtle, and a ray as well as the small brightly colored reef fish. Our destination this day was Green Turtle Cay and the next day we enjoyed a Good Friday fried fish lunch there, put on by the youth group of one of the churches. The fish were fried whole and were served with small sweet banana pancakes. Bahamian gospel music was playing on loudspeakers.

April 11 We’re just about to cross back over the Gulf Stream to the Florida shores (this takes three days of sailing through uninhabited cays). We are hailed on the radio by the crew of LOS GATEOWS. By chance, they are sailing up the west side of the island that we are sailing up the east side of (they are just sending a random radio call)! So, one final meeting and rum drinks with “old” friends, Mike and Debbie and girls, at Great Sale Cay. As we compare notes from the past few weeks, we look forward to being back in the U.S………..

MARCH 16 - 27 FIRST HALF OF TRIP: 2200 MILES, SECOND HALF: ?

Proud fisherwoman with catch, off Nassau



Recess at Black Pt. Primary School



"Slaughter", a local racing boat in Black Pt., Exumas

March 17 Technically we are heading back, because we have gone as far south as we want to go. We still have some places to see that we didn’t see on the way down and we should be more direct on our way back, as we’re not planning any side trips (like our diversion to the Florida Keys in January and February). In general our first “half” took 6 months and our second “half” should take about 3 months.

The first week of our return trip we went to Black Point in the Exumas. It is about half way along the Exuma chain and is a small, friendly, non-commercial island settlement. Most of the houses in the center of the settlement have a couple of ladies sitting outside in the shade of a tree plaiting grass strips. We also saw one man doing this and he said they sell the strips to Nassau. There is a “laundermat” and a grocery store, a grade 1-8 school, a police station, and two restaurants here. We followed up on a sign posted at the laundermat and volunteered to tutor in the school for two mornings. Ken had Gregory on the first day, a first grader with a very soft voice; I had Tyrelle, an 8th grade girl who needed remedial work in math and reading. The second day we both worked with 4th grade boys. There were 3-4 other boaters each day who also were volunteering. We went outside with all the children at recess (40 children in the 8 grades). Ken was the goalkeeper for an impromptu soccer game with the little ones!

In Black Point we tried sopadillo fruit. It looks a little like a kiwi and tastes like a dense, very sweet peach, but with no juice. We also got more fresh bread from the mother of Lorene at Lorene’s Restaurant. It smelled so good we had to have some as soon as we got back to the boat, even though it was 5:30 pm and normally we would have been having rum punch and some crackers and cheese.

March 21 Continuing north we sailed to a few favorite stops from three weeks ago. We are seeing some familiar boats, including LOS GATEOWS, a cruising family from New Hampshire with 3 young girls. Debbie and Mike are home-schooling the 2 older girls and the day we saw them this week they had a surprise “field trip” day for their students -- translation: snorkeling and exploring the trails in the Exuma Park at Warderick Wells. We went aboard their boat that night. They have a catamaran and it is very wide, with two pontoons on either side of a large main cabin. Each pontoon has a bathroom and one side also has two bedrooms while the other side has one bedroom and an office. The main cabin has a large galley, a raised counter with bar stools (!) and an upholstered L-shaped settee and dining table. The flat-screen TV is on the dining side of the cabin. There’s also a back deck, maybe 10 ft. wide off the stern of the boat. Pretty comfortable!

We snorkeled a few times during this part of our trip and at one point I noticed there was a 5 ft shark cruising along going the same way I was, maybe 25 ft. away from me. I kept an eye on him/her and kept on snorkeling on the reef. There are little yellow-breasted birds here. They are friendly and come land on your hand if you hold it out. Even better if you have sugar in your hand! Ken had seven at one time feeding from his palm! Our fishing has still been coming up with little results, but yesterday I caught a Spanish mackerel. We had it for dinner last night, just enough to feed two people and delicious.

March 26 We had two great sails the past two days, as it is still quite windy but now in a good direction for sailing. We are now in Nassau at a marina, and plan to head for the Abacos in the next day or so. We haven’t been in a city of this size since Fort Lauderdale in December. There are great stores across the street from the marina and Paradise Island is across the harbor, with it’s large hotels and casinos. In this small marina there is a sailboat from Marshfield and a trawler from Hingham.

We are starting to get a little homesick after almost 6 months on the boat; of course, daydreaming of home is easier since most of the bitter cold weather must be gone by now! We should be winding up our time in the Bahamas in the next few weeks and plotting our passage back across the Gulf Stream for the U.S. We look forward to it being easier to keep in touch with friends and family, but it has been very nice to be in warm weather and in warm company here in the Bahamas.

FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 15 SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS

Heidi and friends on tournament volleyball team



Ken and crab found on beach in George Town



School Kids in George Town (more pictures next chance I get)

Feb 27 Everyday there is too much wind! It’s sunny and there is lots to do in this area but the wind rules all! It’s somewhat better if we go into the beach on Stocking Island because that is out of the wind somewhat. We have changed our anchoring location twice because of the wind and at one anchorage we were bouncing off the bottom for an hour-and-a-half as the waves caused by the wind rocked us up and down.

Our final anchorage (so far) is quite a way from town, and we need to go to town quite often for supplies and entertainment. The dinghy ride is wet and rough, again due to the wind. But George Town has a fairly large grocery and a few vendors in the park with garden vegetables. We can get phone cards there to use in the payphones to call our parents and kids. There is a straw market where local ladies weave baskets and handbags and they also sell souvenirs there. We also went to George Town recently to watch the George Town softball team play a team of US and Canadian boaters. Lets just say that the locals are VERY good!!

Our timing has brought us to George Town right at the start of the Cruisers Regatta, run by the visiting boaters. This lasts for 10 days and includes a parade of boats past the town and local dignitaries, a children’s day that gets the local school children (3rd & 4th grades) together with the boater children for games, a volleyball tournament, a sand sculpture contest, a big “Ultimate” trivia contest, a sailing race, and MANY more activities. Our favorite so far was the No-Talent Show followed by a dance party on the sand.

We connected up with some friends from the past, Susan and Tom Maddigan from the Catboat Association (the 1970s and early 1980s). They are from Wood’s Hole, and we are finding many other Massachusetts boats here.

March 9 The wind has died down significantly. We are feeling freed up to go snorkeling, beachcombing, and maybe taking a side trip to some of the other small islands near the south of Great Exuma. However, first we need to straighten out a problem with the engine. It doesn’t start sometimes and Ken has narrowed it down to the solonoid (got a new one but still having problems) or the starter (this is a bigger problem as we can’t get a new one here).

March 13 We are very lucky in that the small town here has a BIG Auto Parts Store north of town and they have a mechanic that was able to look at our starter (Ken dismantled it and brought it in -- by dinghy to a beach near the store) and he fixed it the next day. It is back in place and starting our engine perfectly!

March 14 The grand finale to being in George Town was the final night of the Bahamian Music & Heritage Festival. We attended with Tom & Susan from Brilliant and their guests. And about 500 others! It is an outdoor evening music program (with daytime storytelling, straw work, and local crafts) that was 3 days and nights. The final night had some great Exuma performers and some bigger names flown in from Nassau. A Junkanoo group made an appearance (awesome!). What a night -- ending at 2 am with fireworks and another junkanoo group. Unforgettable!!

Thus ends two weeks of sports and partying with the other cruisers, shelling, snorkeling, meeting Bahamians and dancing with them, and fighting the overactive wind! We plan on leaving tomorrow and heading back up the island chain in the Exumas, and then visiting the Abacos in the northern Bahamas.

February 18 - 26 LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS: GOATS, RAYS, & FRESH BREAD

Gil on STELLA MARIS



Looking out from "Peace & Plenty" dock in George Town



Ken with a barracuda he caught on the Exuma Bank

Feb. 25 We’re several islands down the chain of the Exumas at Big Major Spot near Staniel Cay. We are enjoying the weather (mostly sunny every day) and the water (snorkeling to see fish and coral).

We were entertained yesterday morning by two goats on the otherwise unoccupied island. They had a face-off in a cave opening that was near our boat. They pawed the ground, butted heads, backed-up and charged. They paced themselves and several hours later were still going at it until some dinghy came along and came too close, disrupting them (maybe they were glad to end it at that point!).

But one of the best things here in this simple village is a bright yellow house with a “Bread” sign outside. When we first stopped in we were told that we could get whole wheat bread at 4 pm when it came out of the oven, so we went back at 4 pm promptly, and then we ordered coconut bread for the next day. Today on the VHF radio we heard that the Yellow House has conch fritter mix to take home and cook for yourself as well as bread. We’ll be there!

We’ve continued to meet interesting cruisers and exchange stories about where we’ve been so far and where we’re going. Some boats are now headed north and can give us up to date reports on where to stop as we head south and good advice about water depths and which cuts to consider using when we pass from the Bahama Banks side of the Exumas to the Exuma Sound. Some cruisers are seasoned and have made this trip many times and others are also new to this and can laugh with us at our first time exploits.

We met Gil from Miami in the Exuma Land and Sea Park a few days ago. He is single-handing a large John Alden sailboat with old charts and this is his first trip to the Bahamas. We have exchanged information and questions and have traded-off on cooking dinner the last two nights.

We’ve had some beach meetings with larger groups -- some planned and some impromptu -- where we get to gab and get more advice and info. The evening beach gatherings usually include a campfire of driftwood and BYOB. We’re experimenting with different rums and different mixers so the combinations are endless.

Today we snorkeled in Thunderball Cave, and saw many of the colorful tropical fish that hang out there. The area around this cave was used in the Thunderball James Bond movie some years back. There are also large rays that coast along the bottom, mostly ignoring us. Some are more than three feet across and today we saw a very large one that was a gray-blue color.

Feb. 28 We sailed to George Town today. There is a route in more shallow water that is more protected from the wind, but since we are trying to avoid shallow water, we took the route through a “cut” to the Exuma Sound and motor-sailed all day to Elizabeth Harbor where George Town is. We fished on the way but only had one bite, and no luck. The town is large compared to others in the Exumas and has more facilities and supplies. There are estimated to be 300 cruising sailboats anchored here, spread out between 4-5 different areas all in sight of each other. It is quite protected here from pretty much all directions.

There is a morning “Cruisers Net” in this harbor on the VHF radio that is moderated by one person but includes information from other designated volunteers. People take turns reporting on the local business schedules, the weather, the up-coming cruisers regatta (The 37th Annual!). Then each interested boat, in turn, can announce that they have just arrived, or that they have some equipment for sale, or that they need to borrow something, etc. This weekend there were church schedules, information about upcoming trivia contests, announcement of a workshop on understanding the weather in the area, and many other subjects.

March 1 Meals are an interesting subject and ours are almost always good; on board our boat we can cook almost anything and it tastes delicious! Must be the fresh air and the anticipation that if we’re roughing it how can it turn out so well. We often make substitutions in a recipe and the results are so good we plan to replicate them when we get home. Eating out for a lunch or dinner in this area is interesting. You usually get a limited menu and then pick out what you want and then you are told they are out of that. After a few tries you settle on what they DO have. Sometimes as you walk in they tell you they “just have chicken” or that they “will have hamburger when the next mailboat delivery comes in a few days”. The food has been good but you can’t have your heart set on any one favorite! Even conch, the local shellfish, is not always available. Today lunch was not grouper or conch chowder, but the mahi mahi and the chicken on ceasar salad were excellent.

In George Town we have connected up with Gil from Miami and his girlfriend Manny has joined him. There are several other boats here that we remember from other places. Stay tuned for more adventures from the Bahamas!

February 12 - 17 CROSSING THE GULF STREAM, THE “BANKS”, AND ANDROS ISLAND, BAHAMAS

First land passed after crossing Gulf Stream, lighthouse on Gun Cay



Relaxing on gulfside beach in Marathon before setting off for the Bahamas

February 13 After yesterday’s uneventful day sailing and then motoring to Rodriguez Key (I have to mention the beautiful turquoise color of the water all day in Hawk Channel) we are up at 4:30 am today and find that the wind is now changed and is coming from the north. We have been warned innumerable times not to sail to the Bahamas if the wind is NW, N, or NE! Seven or eight other boats are calling on the VHF radio in the dark, talking about what to do. The north wind could make the Gulf Stream almost impassable with huge waves and buffeting winds. The Gulf Stream always flows north and can be between 2-7 knots of current. In the end six of us decide to try it. “You can always turn back” is our thought. However, the one boat that we have designated as our buddy-boat, SERENADE, feels strongly about not going and so we are parting ways, and we feel badly about that.

The start of our day at 5 am is difficult because of the dark, but we are for a while able to follow the first 5 boats through the opening in the reef outside of Rodriguez Key. After that it is a great trip, as the sun came up around 6:30 am, the north winds were light and the waves in the Gulf Stream were small. We altered our course from heading for the southernmost entry into the Bahamas Bank so that we’d follow a boat from the group what was going to the middle entry (Gun Cay and Cat Cay) and the rest headed for Bimini, the northernmost entry in this area.

By 4:00 pm we reached the cut between the cays and entered the Bahamas Bank. We had decided to find the Customs station at Andros Island, on the other side of this part of the Bank. So all we need to do at this point is anchor for the night and then sail for Andros tomorrow. One little challenge lay before us, however, as the Bank in this area is very shallow (no where on the Bank is it deep, averaging between 4 - 14 ft. at low time). We inched our way through the beginning of the channel that our chart suggested, but went aground at about 5:00 pm. After a half hour of gently running the engine we did get off and gingerly moved the boat to 8 ft of water and anchored just before sunset. We now know that if our depth-sounder starts reading 6.1 ft. that we are about to hit bottom -- which luckily is all sand here.

Just as it gets dark we hear voices and see a light maybe a mile away -- another boat anchored on the Bank. Otherwise there is nothing around for miles. We are about 5 miles east of Gun Cay and Cat Cay at this point.

Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day After checking the charts we can see that we will be on the Bahama Banks all day and won’t reach Andros until tomorrow. The weather is warm and sunny and the water is crystal clear and about 10-13 feet deep all day. We motored in the morning, sailed slowly in the middle of the day and then motored again in the late afternoon as there was not much wind. We have seen a few sailboats in the far distance and one or two motorboats pass on our course but that is all we see above the water. Below is sand, some grass, starfish, and some small shiny fish that jump out of the water and skim the surface for about 2 ft before diving back in. It is like dropping RISING TIDE into a stretched out version of Snow’s Pond back home. We anchored at the end of the day for our second night on the Bank.

Feb. 15 For another sunny, warm, light-air day we travel to Morgan’s Bluff on the northern end of Andros Island. To get there we are in the Tongue of the Ocean, which is in the middle of the Bahamas and is 600-1800 meters deep. This was a shorter trip, about 6 hours, and Ken saw Customs when we got there and anchored. After that we exchanged our quarantine flag for a Bahamian flag, flown above our U.S.flag. Morgan’s Bluff is a small town, seems to have about 4 small buildings and a park that they use for their annual regatta. Further out on the back side of the bluff is a dock for water tankers that come from Nassau to fill up with Andros water and take it back to Nassau. Our second day on Andros we watched a gang of local boys prepare to go out for some diving, then sailed to Fresh Creek which is 2 towns, Andros Town and Coakley Town. The wind kicked up and we had a lively sail down there, another 6-7 hour sail.

Fresh Creek is also small and there is only room for shallow-draft boats to anchor. We are therefore docked at a small marina along with about 7 sailboats and 7 power boats. It is windy and clear. We will probably stay here one more day until the wind dies down to medium strength. Our first night here we were given fresh fish from the local guy cleaning it for the power boat owner who caught it. We watched 3 bull sharks circle near the fish-cleaning station. Other activities in town are a factory that makes batik fabric and clothing, and several bonefishing lodges that cater to fishermen who fly in to fish for the week. Between the 2 towns there are about 5 restaurants, and 3 small grocery stores, plus 3-4 other small stores. We are happy that the marina has wifi so this information can go out and we can check our email! We are planning to switch from phoning to email and texting as phone charges are very high here.

Our introduction to the Bahamas and Andros Island has been great and we look forward to more interesting days in the Exumas where we will be heading next.

February 4 - February 11 REUNIONS AND GOOD-BYES

Pelicans waiting for fish scraps as a charterboat captain cleans the day's catch in Key West.



"Diver Dave" (that's what he's called!) preparing to put a new zinc on our boat prop before we go off to the Bahamas--another important but difficult detail to attend to.

Feb. 4 We spent the time since out last blog (we’re still in Marathon) fixing and tweaking things on the boat: adding a salt water pump so we can conserve fresh water, correcting problems with our alternator that were not addressed earlier, adjusting the wind vane. We played some tennis on the city courts. And we attended another Bahamas information meeting. Because of the cold and windy north winds there are many boats who are here waiting to leave, for either the Bahamas, the west coast of Florida, or south into the Caribbean and Central America.

We found some people from Lubec, Maine who we had “met” earlier in the trip. They had helped us when our boat was dragging it’s anchor and had secured it to another boat in St.Augustine. We only saw them in the dark then, but now we got to see them in the daylight and they are an interesting couple, sailing right now with a 20-something son who is a soccer player and former steeplechaser in college. We also found an earlier-in-the-trip Canadian couple who took 3 weeks off to return home for the holidays. They are now back on their boat and sailed into Marathon this week; Ian and Marlene on GUST ‘O WIND are both retired school principals.

The highlight this week was a gathering on our boat with several other cruisers. It was cold so we had soup and French bread and we all sat down below rather than in the cockpit. Two of the attendees were Chris and Kevin from upstate New York, who we met very early in our trip, in Chesapeake City in the C& D Canal.

There was also another bus trip to Key West, this time for me and Susan, from SWAN. Susan used to live in this part of the world so she was a great tour guide. We went to a realtor’s Open House, a fully renovated shot-gun-style cottage in the middle of town. And we talked through many of the residential neighborhoods checking out the details on the house facades and the gardens .

Feb. 8 Today Chris and Kevin on ANDROS sailed out, bound for Key West. The next day Barry and Susan on SWAN, our pals for the past six weeks, left Marathon for the west coast of Florida. The day after that we met the owners of about 7 other boats who are leaving for the Bahamas later this week, at a gathering planned so we could meet and exchanged information. Although it is still windy, the cold weather has moderated and it looks good for a weather break. We need winds from the south so that we can count on the Gulf Stream behaving (translation: no big huge waves) since getting to the Bahamas means crossing the 30 mile wide (or so) current.

Feb. 11 Today is the busy day doing last minute shopping and preparing to sail to a small island (Rodriguez Key) off the coast of the upper Keys, where we should have a good shot at crossing the Gulf Stream on Friday. We hope that in the Bahamas we have access to the internet -- and have time to access it in between all the fun we hope to have!! -- so keep tuned but I expect that blogs will be fewer for the next 2 months. Our long-range plans are to head back to the U.S. in mid-April but as you may have seen from our past exploits on this trip, all this is subject to change.

January 26 - February 3 PART OF THE CRUISING CROWD

The "cruising crowd's" dinghies, this time in to watch the inauguration at the marina



Sponge fisherman near Big Pine Key

January 26 The cruisers here in Marathon are a pretty homogeneous group; they are for the most part retired-age couples, a good number of them have one small dog, they are often staying here for weeks or months, they mostly are on sailboats, they like to share tips on saving time and money, they are from Eastern Canada or Eastern U.S. This is our “crowd” for the time being.

A few exceptions to this make things interesting, so when a boat from Luxembourg or Australia enters the harbor, everyone pays attention. There are a few boats with children (one is even a boat from Australia with children!). Some boats have, in addition to their country flag, flags that tell more about them. We have Justin’s Tenth Mountain Div. 2-4 flag he sent us. One boat has a 6 ft. Pittsburgh Steelers banner and a Steelers flag, another flew his U.S. flag upside down during the week of the inauguration--that caused a bit of an uproar!

We also compare notes on dinghies, our transportation to shore. One might be only 5 ft. long (ours is small but is 10 ft.), another might have 3 golden retrievers in it with the owners, another couple might be kayaking to shore in 2 kayaks, one each with a dog standing on the kayak deck. Other things to notice are how the dinghies are lighted, what registration numbers are on them, the size of their outboard engine or if they are rowing.

Our latest quest is to find two specific boats: we heard there is a boat from Marblehead here in the harbor, just arrived, and also were told by the marina staff that there is another Maitland owner here somewhere. This is how we fill our days for now, waiting for both the weather to turn in our favor and for all the boat projects to be finished so we’re not trying to fix too many things in the Bahamas.

January 29 We took a side trip out of Marathon, west to Big Pine Key. There are less cruisers there -- we only saw 6 or 7 boats anchored in the channel. It is shallow at the entrance and again about mid-channel, and we got stuck on the bottom a few times but we did get ourselves off the sandy bottom and proceeded to anchor near a wildlife refuge called Coupon Bight. There was a beautiful sunset there our first night, and the stars were spectacular as it’s wide open with very few shore lights, and during this time only a crescent moon detracted from the stars’ lights.

We didn’t go ashore, but dinghied into the Bight and watched a sponge fisherman pull up black sponges from the bottom there in shallow water. He said he would sell them and they would be used for cosmetics, fuel filters in planes, and that Australians liked them for grooming horses. We also saw a large frigatebird that was gliding/fishing near our boat (the bird book helped us to identify it as a male Magnificent Fridgatebird). The rest of our time in the Big Pine Key area was spent staying on our boat as a very windy storm blew through the area and stayed for 2 days. It was a good time to catch up on crossword puzzles and naps. We also watched a beautiful 35 ft. varnished powerboat go back and forth past us. It is THE TRUMAN, and is used to take passengers and employees out to an exclusive island resort (no bridge or other shore access).

February 1 Traveling out the Newfound Harbor Channel to leave the Big Pine area we were escorted by a half dozen dolphins. I think I got them on video since they hung around for quite a while. The weather was still windy, but even worse wind is predicted in a few days, so we decided to go back to Marathon and the nice protected harbor there. That night we watched the first half of the Superbowl at a waterside restaurant and the second half in the city marina with our “cruising crowd”. The next night a bad gale did blow through along with thunder and lightening.

Projects for each of the next few days are to fill up on propane (our fuel for cooking), diesel (fuel for the sailboat engine), gasoline (for the outboard), water for our boat‘s watertanks, fix a few more small things on RISING TIDE, and stock up on some more groceries and supplies. It looks more sure that we will be heading for the Bahamas now, we’re just not sure when the weather will cooperate. We also have to head back to the northeast before we head due east for the first of the Bahamas islands. Right now we are about 110 miles from the closest Bahamas island; we also have worked our way so far southwest that we are about the same distance from Cuba, maybe even a little closer.

PS Forgot to mention last week that our son Pete turned 25 on January 19th!