Georgetown and the Tuna

It was the week before Christmas and finally the northeast winds let up enough for us to move further south. We spent several days in Black Point before moving 6 miles north to Staniel Cay where we spent another several days. Staniel Cay has the Yacht Club which is owned by a Florida businessman. It has more modern amenities including a wifi signal that we were able to pick up right on the boat.

On the Friday we moved south by about 15 miles sheltered from the waves by the several islands on the way and staged for our trip to Georgetown at Cave Cay. We had stayed there last year as well when we made the jump to Georgetown and the anchorage was familiar to us. We spent the afternoon of a fabulous day in the water and on the beach. The next morning we pushed off for Georgetown at slack tide so the current and waves at the cut leading to Exuma Sound were at their minimum.

We expected a northeast wind to push us south to Georgetown however the wind shifted further east and south and we ended up motor-sailing and motoring most of the 35 miles. The fishing rods went out as soon as we cleared the cut and boats all around were catching fish but not us. Then when were two thirds of the way we got a strike on the lighter of our two rods and this time the fish did not get away. After about 10 minutes we got the fish close enough to see that it was faired sized but manageable. When got it on board we were surprised to see that it was a 15-20 lb tuna and not a mahi that we expected to see. The curse seems to finally have lifted.

We will be staying in Georgetown until after Christmas as the winds are again expected to blow pretty hard. We'll have supper at the Peace and Plenty restaurant and then get up at 2:00 AM to attend the Junkanu Festival that dates back to the slave days. Should be fun.

We are planning on leaving next Monday Dec 29 and head south to the turks and Caicos. We had hoped to meet another boat heading south like us so that we will have company on this more difficult part of the trip but there is nobody we have met in Georgetown on our schedule.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukah and a Happy New Year.

Liz & Menno

Norman Cay and Exuma Sea Park

Eight days after leaving Stuart, Florida where we had kept the boat over the summer and rented the condo for the month of November, we arrived in the Exumas. Actual travel time was seven days since we spent a full day in Fort Lauderdale having our fuel injector looked at and having supper with Yoli and Chris.

The gods were smiling because we have had a great weather window to cross over and descend into the Exumas. Norman Cay was an island we did not have an opportunity to visit last year and we decided to make our way directly from Nassau. We had a great northwesterly wind that pushed us handily southeast to Norman. We had picked up one of our spinnaker sails from Annapolis on our way down to Florida and our transit between Nassau and Norman was a great opportunity to try it. We had never flown this sail (colourful balloon sail for you non-sailors) and it took a while to set it up. The first time around we got the wrong line in the spinnaker pole and when we raised the sail it hour-glassed and after quite the struggle we got it down. The second time we got it up but could not raise it quickly enough to fly it. Again we had to pull it down. In hind sight we realized that we should have shortened the lines and also headed further downwind so that the sail would have opened in front of the boat rather than on the side where we were trying to raise it. What we did notice is the tremendous power this sail generates as it was impossible to hold on to when the wind caught it. In all of this mucking about we also discovered that the spinnaker halyard (the rope used to raise the sail at the mast) appeared to be twisted over the fore stay and the sail furling system. The halyard had been used a number of times to pull things up the mast when either Menno or the riggers were up the mast. We will have to go up the mast one more time to correct this little problem before trying to fly the spinnaker again.

Norman Cay was a drug runner’s island for many years until they got booted out by the government. There are the remains of a DC-3 aircraft in the water just near the anchorage. At one time it was recognizable as a plane but now not much remains. We found a number of conchs which are very plentiful at this island and we developed the knack in cleaning and cooking them and had them for supper. Lobster has still remained elusive and we will continue hunting them and the groupers that also abound in the water.

We left Norman Cay when we heard the weather was going to turn nasty at the end of the week. Winds were already blowing 20-25 knots and they were predicting up to 30 later on. We headed south for 20 miles in 20-25 knot winds and for a while were sailing nicely until the winds shifted further south. We put in to the Exuma Sea Park where we had been last year and could take a mooring ball. We also finally caught up with Charlie and Shirley on La Coquette who befriended and encouraged us last year. They had been behind us by a day for nearly a week and then skipped by us while we were enjoying Norman Cay. When this weather subsides we intend to head south to Black Point which has a great Laundromat, a half decent grocery store and several nice anchorages.

Fort Lauderdale was a stop we had to make to have the one leaky fuel injector on our engine repaired. We had tried to fix it ourselves, however, not having enough experience with diesel engines we finally decided that it was best if a real mechanic looked at it. It took all of an hour to fix and at the same time we obtained a lesson in fixing injectors as well. We had supper that night with our friends Yoli and Chris, the folks that are storing our car for us this winter (thanks guys) before moving further south along the ICW as the weather was still not right for crossing the Gulf Stream.

That night, December 3, we ended up at No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne waiting for our weather window to cross. That was next morning. We left in the dark and made our way through the channel using our trusty chartplotter GPS and looking for the red and green flashing lights. Red on right when returning to harbour so it was red on left going out. An important thing to remember.

When we left December 4, it was one year to the day when we left last year from Tavernier Key and our cruising permit had elapsed at midnight. Oh well, we felt we had a 24 hour grace period before we had to check in with customs so we didn’t because we were out 6 hours later.

The water was a little rough when we first nosed out into the ocean but not unmanageable. We had 4-6 foot waves and the forecast was for them to diminish with time and they did. The wind was up at about 10 knots so we motor sailed south to get as much distance southward before hitting the Gulf Stream which flows north. When we slowed down to 4.5 knots we started our turn and started to pick up speed as the stream started to carry us northward as we headed east to Gun Cay in the Bahamas. We mad the crossing in a little less than 9 hours and took our first swim in the Bahamas by middle of the afternoon.

We had a pleasant night at Gun Cay and left there the next morning for our next stop, NW Channel light on the Great Bahamas Bank. There wasn’t a ripple when we left and we made 7 knots across the bank looking through crystal clear waters at the sandy bottom as little as 5.5 feet under our hull. We took the opportunity to do little chores on the boat including running the watermaker for the first time since we re-installed following the instructions from the manufacturer rather than relying on the old installation. We got great tasting water out of it on the first try and will use it to produce most of our drinking water and other freshwater needs on the boat from here on in. So much for plans we continued on to Chub Cay and arrived after dark which was an experience.

The next day we made the trip over to Nassau. I got a chance to try out my new ballyhoo lures and boy they worked well. Lost a big one lost a small one and never saw the third one. Have to get more of those lures. Tomorrow we head further south into the Exumas.

Intercoastal Waterway

The last week in Stuart was spent at a dock we found along the St. Lucie River where we got the last few things done. We thought we were going to have an easy week of it until we tried to start the generator and got no response from it other than it cranked over. For those of you that know diesel engines, if you have fuel and you have air and the engine turns over it is supposed to start. Well it didn’t and after a number of hours trying to get it started and having taken the whole fuel injection system apart and put back together it still wouldn’t run so we had to have a mechanic come on board. This was two days before Thanksgiving weekend which in the States is a bigger deal than Christmas and everything shuts down. He came and conquered using a spray bottle of ether to get the engine running. If we had only known but we know now.

Another thing we discovered was our mast navigation lights were not working. A pop rivet placed in the mast by the people who did our rigging hit a wire and caused a bad ground. Two days later this was fixed as well.

While at dock we had visits from Bryan and Jacinthe Osborn, Jeanne and Jock Wallace, and Jan and Jean Carpentier friends from Mont-Tremblant that all were in the area. Norm and Betty Hamilton of Stuart were great friends and provided memorable occasions.

On Sunday November 30 we left Stuart Florida after having spent the month getting Snow Shoo ready for our next cruise. We have both worked hard and Liz spent so much time in the stores buying food and other things for our trip over the winter that she does not want to see another store for a while. The trip down the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) to Fort Lauderdale took two days and Liz had fun taking pictures of Christmas displays at some of the houses along the way.

We will be getting a minor repair to one of the injectors on our main engine and then should be ready to leave for the Bahamas as soon as the weather permits. Our next update will provide pictures of our crossing and our return to Nassau.

Splash

Every morning we leave the condo we rented in Stuart and go to work, or at least it feels that way. We arrive in the boat yard with a list of things to do and our purchases from the night before. We have put in a lot of work the last two weeks. We pulled out the old refrigeration and freezer compressors, condensers and evaporators and installed the new unit that we bought in Picton, Ontario when we went biking with many of you. The solar panels that we bought on-line from a place in California were matched to a holding bracket and post that we had an aluminum railing manufacturer make up for us in Stuart. We just walked into this little factory one day after finding out the yard wouldn't look at the job for less than $500 or more. The next day Josh had done the job for $100 cash; thank you very much.

As we showed you the mast went up without a hitch and all the halyards and other control lines (running rigging for you sailors) were back in place before the end of the day. Last weekend we completed the solar panel installation and a day later our batteries were topped up. Just amazing how much power you can capture using that Florida sunshine. We put the power to good use and tried the new freezer and refrigerator. Inside an hour and a half the cold plate was at -10 degrees C and it did it without drawing down the batteries like the old ones would last year.

We have tested most of the boat systems and everything seems to be working. We have one more day in getting things ready for the Thursday morning splash of Snow Shoo. The pictures show the boat on the hard being supported by jack stands, the trip in the travel lift through the boat yard and being gently dropped into the water. Yes we did check to see that the drain plug was in before droppping it into the water. We have found a dock down the river within a mile of our rented condo where we will be able to do our final preparations before leaving at the end of the month.

Here we are at dock in the boat yard after having given the boat a wash down. It was grimy and really needed some elbow grease. The engine started right away which is a good sign. Tomorrow morning we will take it down river to the dock we have rented until the end of the month.

Stuart Notes

We have been staying at this really nice condo in Stuart; pool, tennis court, gym, etc. and it is a gated community. We seem to have really lucked out in renting this for the month and it is centrally located near the main stores and services we need and the boat.

Work has been progressing nicely. The water maker checked out today so we know the equipment is ok and like everything else on the boat it probably wasn't correctly installed and that is why we were not getting the flow we should. So now it is on list of things to do; re-install the water maker according to the spec sheets.

Also on the list of things is installing the solar panels. We think we know where they are going to go and we just have to confirm this with the boat yard.

Liz bought a vacuum packaging system so that we can pack away food for months at a time. We have been trying different packaged foods so that we won't be scrounging the little grocery stores in the Bahamas and points south. The refrigeration/freezer installation is complete and we're wating to try it out once the boat is placed into the water. The tentative splash date is the 20th. Before that we just have a bunch of maintenance things to do which will more than likely take up the rest of our time in the yard.

We have been told that the in mast furling main sail is still functional so this year we'll try using it rather than the other main sail that we used last year. We took our bimini top to the canvas specialists and they all told us that it was beyond hope. The good part of this is that the new one will be water proof and when it rains we won't get wet like we did last year.

We haven't taken any pictures of the boat all torn apart so this will be just a simple short section of the blog. Weather has been great with very little rain and temperatures in the 15-25 degrees range. Very pleasant.

Stuart, Florida

We're heading down to Stuart on Thursday October 30 with stops in Albany to get another SIM card so that we can have two unlocked phones while we are in Florida, in Columbia, MD so that Liz can go shopping at the LL Bean store, and in Annapolis to pick up our spinnaker sails that we shipped there a year ago. This is what it looked like when we left after a freak snow storm knocked out electricity and phone for almost a week.

We hope to get there on November 1 and start familiarizing ourselves with Snow Shoo again. We will be there when the mast gets raised with the new rigging in place. This year we hope things will be quite different given that we are much more familiar with the boat and have bought a few things that should solve our power issues that we had to contend with last year.

On arriving in Stuart we had a look at Snow Shoo and we were pleasantly surprised that it weathered the summer with very little damage other than being very dirty. The work started in earnest after we had been to Fort Lauderdale to pick up our equipment that we had shipped to our friends Yoli and Chris and knocked off a number of things on our lists of things to buy and do. We stripped out the refrigeration and freezer systems, the watermaker and the rear AC unit. The new refrigeration system is almost installed and and arrangements have been made to repair the AC and the watermaker. We have spoken to the canvas repair people and we will have to have a new bimini top made before we leave. The mast with the new rigging is supposed to be installed next week. That leaves mounting the solar panels. After that we are down to maintenance items and cleaning. We have a tentative splash date for the 20th of November. Then a few sea trials and if everything is ok we will head south to below Miami where we will wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream.

More later