Snow Shoo In the Caribbean 2009-2010

St.Martin to Nevis and back

2010-02-18T14:06:00.002-08:00

Well what have been up to since the last update. We headed out to St. Martin in the company of Laima (Beni & Rick from Tremblant) and Tonica (from Nashville, Tenn.). We left in the middle of the night to ensure a daytime arrival in St. Martin. On the way we had a pod of about 20 porpoises frolicking around the boat for a little while. We entered St. Martin on the French side but the swell in the anchorage caused us to move to the Dutch side the next morning and enter the lagoon later. We have seen the occasional mega yacht up to now but what we saw at St. Martin was just incredible. There were somewhere between 20-30 yachts in the 150-200 foot range and a number of sailboats of the same size. We didn’t like St. Martin as it wasn’t easy to get to the beaches and we definitely did not want to go swimming in the lagoon.

We parted company with Rick & Beni in St. Martin. They were still waiting for a part to come in and also they wanted to renew acquaintances from previous years. We headed out by ourselves for Nevis and St. Kitts where friends on Unchained had agreed to meet us. On the way we were treated by the sight of two whales at the surface smacking their huge flukes and creating splashes that were a sight to see. Nevis had a nice town but the anchorages were not great. We could do very little water activities. The volcano on Montserrat was active and blowing ash into the sky and some of it was falling out on our boat. What had been a clean boat up to now got pretty grungy. Also air quality was the pits. After a few days we decided to head back to the Virgins where the water is great and we can get off the boat at any time.

We left Nevis, checked out at St. Kitts, as the two islands use the same customs officers, and headed northwest to the mountainous island of Saba. We overnighted there regretting that we couldn’t spend more time exploring. There was a forecast for a north swell with 12 foot seas and the anchorage we were in was unprotected from this. We left before sun up and we crossed under motor in some of the flattest seas we have ever seen. Again we had porpoises playing around the boat. We arrived back in St. John in the early evening into a bay we were quite familiar with. The only hiccup was that the mooring balls were all taken and we had to anchor overnight before proceeding on the next morning to clear in with US customs.

We will be hanging around the Virgins now for the next couple of months with still plenty of bays and areas to explore. Hello to everybody we hope you are all well.

Hanging Around the Virgins

2010-01-31T16:57:00.000-08:00

So there is very little to say as we have been hanging around the Virgin Islands; Spanish, US and British. We have had some great day sails and only had the opportunity to fish a couple of times. We caught a couple of tunnys (small albacore tuna) that were maybe 2 pounds each and gave them away to the Marina people at Crown Bay. Here are some of the pictures we have taken and we hope you enjoy them.

On Laima having a gourmet supper at New Years.

Doing a 360 in the dinghy to slow down before chatting with Benita and Rick on Laima.

Staghorn coral in the BVI

Menno and Rick having an important meeting on the beach in Culebra

Liz enjoying a day on the beach at Culebrita

Culebra & Culebrita

2010-01-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Spanish Virgins re-visited

Well the last month or so has been interesting; the recovery from the gall bladder surgery has taken much longer than expected. Just after Christmas an infection set in and we were able to get an appointment with a doctor in St. Thomas. Antibiotics knocked it down and the recovery started to progress nicely again.

We had just about grown roots in Lamshur Bay in St. John USVI and we finally decided to move on. Apart from a couple of short sails south of St. John in order to try and catch some fish we had not moved. On one of those sails we had Benita and Rick on board and we really gave the boat a work out. Winds were 15-25 knots with seas running 6-10 feet in height. The boat handled it beautifully and we saw speeds of nearly 9 knots at one point. That’s humming along nicely thank you very much. We did not see any fish and the only fish we have eaten has been store bought.

Early into the New Year we headed west to Culebra to spend some time in one of our favourite anchorages. Almodovar Bay is located behind a coral reef and when the wind blows out of the east, as it does most days, the water behind the reef is like a mill pond. Liz talks about the cupboard door test; the doors can remain open without them slamming shut or banging. From here we make small excursions to our favourite snorkeling spot on Culebrita and probably the most beautiful beach in the islands. Next week we will head east again to do some cruising in the BVI before trying to head out to St. Marteen and some of the smaller islands in the area.

St. John Pictures

2009-12-15T16:49:00.001-08:00

We have stayed here for two weeks because it is so nice. Here are the pictures.

Lameshur Bay, St.John USVI

2009-12-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Two nights after we arrived at St. John, we woke up the next morning to discover a new boat in the bay with us; it was Laima. Benita and Rick had made an overnight passage from Saba over to St. John and ended up in the same bay as us strictly by coincidence. For those of you who do not know Benita and Rick, they are friends from home in Mont-Tremblant that started cruising a couple of years before us. So we’re just hanging out enjoying the greater weather and fantastic scenery.

Given that St. John is a national park, it has been difficult to find internet access and what we have found has been slow, hence no pictures. We have tried embedding pictures of the bay into this little note to see if that works better than trying to up load them directly on to the blog site but it didn't work as well. So pictures will come later when we have better access.

2009-12-04T10:41:00.001-08:00

Hi everybody, we have started our third year of cruising on Snow Shoo in the Virgin Islands. We arrived in St.Thomas a little over a week ago by flying from Montreal via Miami. It took us 2.5 hours to cover the distance between Florida and the Virgins; last year we spent close to two months on the boat to cover the same distance. We caught the Roadtown fast ferry to Tortola the next morning and checked in to the Hummingbird B & B. We were delayed leaving on the ferry by a bomb threat at the airport that shutdown the roads including the one from our hotel to the ferry, but we still had enough time to walk down to the yard in the afternoon to inspect the boat and do a few things on board. The people at Tortola Yacht Services had taken good care of the boat and she was wearing a new coat of bottom paint. The first thing to be done was to put up the bimini top so that we could have some shade. The heat has been fierce, 30 ºC with relatively little wind. One big day of work and we were almost ready to be launched the next day. We were told 10:30-12:30 would be the expected time for launch. At 8:30 we found the boat in the slings ready to be launched. So much for “island time”.

Once in the water we turned the key and pushed the starter button and crossed our fingers. The engine cranked over for about 15 seconds and caught. Eureka. We sat at the dock for the most of the day getting things done including a small grocery run to tide us over for the next several days. We had sent out our top life lines to have a new set made up and because of the early launch they weren’t ready and it was only in the middle of the afternoon that we were able to leave Roadtown.

We crossed the Sir Francis Drake Channel to one of our favourite spots in the BVI, Benure Bay. We spent all of the next day there taking stock of everything on the boat and our “to do” and “to buy” lists were started. The next morning we headed off to West End on Tortola to check out with customs. Familiarity with the procedures made everything easy. We had checked out of the BVI by 9:00 and by 10:00 we had checked into the USVI. We were at Crown Bay Marina by noon and fueled and tied up at a dock by 1 in the afternoon. We had sent our various bit and pieces for the boat to the marina for safekeeping.

To buy all the food and other stuff we will need for the next few months we rented a car and hit the stores at St.Thomas. After going to a number of stores we brought back a heavily loaded Suzuki to dockside and unloaded everything on to the boat. We fitted our new main sail on to the mast and left the next day.

We are now sitting on the south side of St.John enjoying the sun and light breezes when we aren’t doing little chores getting the boat ready for the cruising season. Menno has had to go up the mast several times as an adjustment to the jib furler resulted in it hanging up and not allowing the sail go out and in smoothly. This has now been fixed and we intend to do a little sailing tomorrow to see how everything is working.

Spanish Virgins March

2009-03-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well we have stayed in the Spanish Virgins pretty well the whole month of March. We did a quick hop over to St Thomas the first couple of days in March to pick up Yoli and Chris Wheeler who spent a long weekend with us in Culebra and the rest of the time we kept ourselves very occupied by sailing over to Vieques for a little more than a week. Vieques is the southernmost island and all of the islands belong to Puerto Rico. Viesques was used as a bombing range by the US Navy for more than 40 years and only recently has been opened up to the public. There are parts of the island that are still out of bounds because of unexploded ordinance that you do not want to drop an anchor on.

We spent some time in Esperanza and we drove up to the town of Isabel Segunda one day to see what the north coast was like. The town was really special and we enjoyed our day walking around and a lunch we had in an “ex-pat” restaurant, real food that wasn’t deeply fried. We spent about 3-4 days in Chiva Bay which the military personnel referred to as Red and Blue Beaches.

Then back to Culebra just before the town of Dewey was inundated by Puerto Ricans arriving to watch the Heineken sail boat races. All types of classes were being raced including some might big yachts. Unfortunately the day of the around the island race, there was a complete calm and the race did not happen.

We have met a number of great people including Peg and Neil Brand on Peggy Sue from southern California. We spent more than a couple of weeks in their company. During that time we also took the ferry over to Fajardo in PR to do some shopping and just to look around. These ferries are subsidized and it cost us all of $9 for return tickets for the both of us.

On March 24 we were supposed to head off to St John however we feel that we cannot get any better anchorages than the ones we have found in Culebra so were still in Culebra. We have started to think about what needs to be done when we put the boat back on the hard on April 14 and therefore we’ll probably have to head out shortly in order to give us enough time to get things organized in the BVI where the boat gets pulled. The pictures explain why we do not want to leave.

Cruising the Virgins

2009-03-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Well it’s been a while since we added to our blog. What have been up to? Well we spent a week at the Cooper Island Beach Club (CIBC) where we were fed three meals a day and more or less rested and recovered from our last couple of months on the boat. It took us at least three days before we stopped rocking every time we looked at the tiled floors. The CIBC was a quaint little place where we had a small cottage without 110 V electricity; just 12 V like on the boat. Water was heated by solar energy and we were rationed to a fixed amount in the cistern located up the hill in the back of the cottage. We had a good time and met some interesting people who had been coming there for years.

When we left CIBC we started to look for little anchorages where the charter boats do not go. We found several and have spent the last three weeks in these little quiet bays learning how to cruise and slow down without making long passages every day. Off Peter Island we stayed at Key Cay and watched the sea turtles swim by almost every day and collected conch and had them for supper. At Virgin Gorda we stayed in two small anchorages and watched the mega yachts float by. Oh yes we did laundry as well at the Leverck Bay Resort. Necker Island, owned by Sir Richard Branson, was nearby and we dinghied over to say that we had been there, we couldn’t afford the $30,000+ a night to rent the island.

Norman Island was our next destination where we found a little bay on the northeast side that was sheltered from the wind. We met Elaine and Derek from Chester NS who had the same boat as us and we had a number of nice evenings with them. We will most likely hook up with them again in Culebra which will be our next destination.

We just checked out of the BVI and checked into the USVI in record time, less than 5 minutes and only a single question from the US customs agent. We write this in St.Thomas Harbour as we wait for our friends Yoli and Chris from Lauderdale to join us for a long weekend in Culebra. More later.

British Virgin Islands

2009-02-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

After having left the Spanish Virgins on January 24 or so (it was a Saturday) we headed for St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and arrived by noon time. In fact the whole time we were in Culebra we could see St. Thomas in the distance. The long voyages were over and we were into line of sight sailing. After having been in Culebra for a little over a week and in anchorages where we were the only boat, St. Thomas was a shock.

On arriving in St. Thomas there were priorities to deal with; a hair dresser appointment for Liz, and a stop at the local diesel engine shop to pick up a spare part we had chased from the Turks & Caicos to Puerto Rico. This one only cost us $8 instead of the $25 we were charged in Puerto Rico. When you need the part you pay whatever it costs.

St.Thomas was a culture shock, we were back in the consumer driven USA. What was a treat was the grocery store at the marina. It carried all the things we were used to seeing on the shelves. We had to control ourselves so that we didn’t buy all sorts of things that would have spoiled over a few days on the boat. We headed further east along the coastline of St. Thomas to a marina where we put in for a few days to get laundry done and all of the other mundane things we take for granted when we’re at home.

We then skipped by the rest of the US Virgins and headed directly to the BVI (British Virgin Islands) a total of 10 miles further east. We arrived in the BVI on February 3 and decided that we would hang out here for a while. Check in with customs and immigration was just a formality on the westernmost island of the BVI, Jost Van Dyke. We dinghied up to the dock and entered the police station to inquire where customs was and to our surprise found a customs officer manning the front desk.

The next day we sailed and motored up to Cooper Island to visit the Cooper Island Beach Club (CIBC not to be confused with the bank). After two months of passage making and finally getting the boat down to where we wanted to be we decided we needed some “land” time. It turned out that there was a vacancy for the following week and we took it. More to be said about that later. In the interim we found a quiet little bay behind Peter Island where the bareboat charterers do not go. It’s scary watching these people, often 8 on a boat, jockeying for the best places in the anchorages without any regard to what’s around them and seemingly little if any experience in boat handling. We almost lost our dinghy to one boat where the fellow was so focused on what was further ahead of him that he passed within 15 feet off of our stern and failed to see our dinghy. We wondered if we had been this bad when we chartered here 15 years ago.

Spanish Virgin Islands

2009-01-28T16:16:00.000-08:00

Saturday the 24th of January; we have arrived in the Spanish Virgin Islands. This is over 1000 miles from where we started in Florida and at least 800 miles from Georgetown where we left after Christmas. Culebra is the main island and then there are several other ones nearby. Actually we arrived yesterday at Vieques however given that part of the island is used as a gunnery range by the US Navy we really didn’t think we had arrived quite yet. We were able to see Puerto Rico the whole way. It is kind of neat to look at the island from the east and understand why this island impacts on the weather patterns of the entire region. The easterly trade winds, laden with water from the ocean are forced upward when they hit the eastern shore and cause all of the water to fall as rain.

Well Culebra is not what I expected. From what we had read I expected an almost uninhabited island, not one with an airport, hotel, houses and a small town. We arrived by noon and instead of anchoring we were able to grab a mooring ball right inside a reef. On the other side of this reef the waves are pounding and the wind blows 15-20 knots all day and during the night. We went ashore for a brief tour just to get the lay of the land and find the important things; grocery store, bakery, gas station and ATM. Then one of the following days we rented a jeep and toured all of the island's beaches and other sights.

We expect to hang around these islands for the next week or two before pushing on to St. Thomas, the closest of the US Virgin Islands. While in Puerto Rico we met, Jimmy, a single hander who had lost his mast in the Mona Passage. Jimmy traveled with us for a while before we put into Ponce to get a couple of small things repaired. Jimmy in ¾ Time continued on to St. Thomas and we hope to catch up with him once we get there. He lives there and should be able to point us in the right direction for a few things we’re looking for. We also met Jim and Dinah on Evergreen IV Rest out of Collingwood, Ontario. They have sold everything and are living on their boat full time, not something we can imagine doing. They may catch up with us before we leave the Spanish Virgins.

While traveling we have tried our luck at fishing but apart from a three mackerel day, we caught a bunch of barracuda and a jack, none of which we are interested in eating. It’s 8 at night and we’re sitting in the cockpit enjoying the breeze and relatively cool air. It is actually cooler here than it was on the south coast of Puerto Rico. While it is cool here for the locals, we are enjoying the 27-30 degree days and the 20-22 degree evenings. That’s plus, not minus degrees Celsius. Just thought we would rub it in a little bit.

We went over to the smaller island know as Culebrita and finally were presented with what we expected. An uninhabited island with coral all over the place. The administrators of these islands got it right. Instead of having boats anchoring and damaging the coral, they have made mooring balls available at all of the best anchorages at no cost to the users. Yahoo!! We may come back to these islands if the the US and British Virgins prove too crowded as they're hardly any boats around.

The Long Haul

2009-01-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

Well the last couple of weeks have started to blur together and we had to read the last blog to figure out where we left off. We stayed in Southside Marina in Provodinciales in the Turks for two nights and rested up and met a nice couple that have stopped cruising and have started managing the small marina. Because they were cruisers they have really catered the marina facilities to cruisers with internet, laundry, shower, etc. Simon runs a net on the VHF radio every morning providing weather forecasts and information for newly arrived boats. Very helpful and we recommend this marina to anybody putting into the island. We had drinks on their boat one night and went out with them to the Conch Shack the next night with Menno sitting in the back bed of their beat up pick up truck.

We left the marina on a Saturday morning for the outer islands to the east, Ambergris and Big Sand. We made Ambergris just before nightfall and anchored very close into a coral reef. The next morning at day break we picked our way through the reef and faced pounding seas on the other side as the sea tried to make its way through the narrow opening in the reef. Once clear we faced 15-20 knot winds and 6 foot seas that were almost right on the nose. Consequently we tacked back and forth towards Big Sand Cay, our jump off point to the Dominican Republic. The seas smooth out a bit during the day and we made Big Sand by two in the afternoon. We got off the boat and landed on a beach with what we estimated was a 30 degree slope. We wrestled the dinghy up the slope waiting for each wave to push it higher.

We left there at sundown and headed for the DR. Eighty eight miles of open ocean. The weather was pretty good but we still had the wind almost on the nose and had to motor sail the whole way. As we approached the DR the mountains were visible from 25 or more miles away even though it was still dark. As we got a little closer the seas calmed completely due to land effect where the breezes come off the land and counter effect the easterly winds that dominate in the Caribbean.

We pulled into the marina at Oceanworld at 0900 and fueled and received a berth. While we were both tired after napping in the cockpit while the other steered, there was so much to see that we explored. We found a little restaurant run by two Canadians just outside the marina and had a great supper there. The next couple of days we toured Puerto Plata and lounged by a huge pool that we had to ourselves.

On a Wednesday night we waited for the land effect breezes to take over the easterly trade winds and left Oceanworld. Well we were greeted by water we estimate at 8-10 foot rollers that bounced us around until we could clear of the shallower water near shore. We were off for Puerto Rico. Once clear of the rougher water we wanted to put up the main sail, however, the bouncing around had caused our halyard to wrap around another line at the mast and we only could use the jib. In the morning light we saw what had happened and after a little cursing and bouncing around on deck the halyard was freed. During the night we kept hearing two other boats on the radio and we finally contacted them. They were about an hour behind us so we had a little more comfort that we weren’t the only ones out there. By late morning we decided we needed a break and put into what almost looked like a fjord on the northeast tip of the DR.

We re-grouped there on one of the most spectacular sceneries we have ever seen. The other two boats also put in there however we decided to leave before they did. We were on the go again to cross the Mona Passage between the DR and Puerto Rico. This passage can be a nasty one and the distance we had to cover was about 130 miles. Weather cooperated and we made the Puerto Rico coast just after nightfall and anchored at Mayaguez, a seaport on the west side of the island. We tried to get hold of US Customs the next day because PR is a US protectorate and only finally managed to check in at the end of the afternoon on Saturday. The next morning we motored south for about 10 miles to Boqueron, a well know anchorage for cruising boats. Of course on the way down we caught a fish for supper and had it cleaned before entering the anchorage.

Looking back, we left Georgetown, Exuma exactly 12 days before arriving in PR. During that time we were laid up in the T & C for 2 days and Oceanworld for another 2 days. So in 8 days we covered over 500 miles, many of those at night. From here on in we slow down and enjoy the wonderful little bays and reefs of the islands as we will very slowly move east and south over the next couple of months.

The First Long Passage

2009-01-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

New Years and we’re moving from Mayaguana to the Turks & Caicos. We left one of the nicest anchorages we have seen in the Bahamas with 15 feet of crystal clear water on a white sand bottom. (Liz only looked at it from near the boat ladder due to the overly curious 4 foot barracuda). At midnight we started our last leg of a 250 nautical mile passage that started at Georgetown on the Monday morning. We had left there more than a little nervous and bucking 15 knot winds and 4-6 foot waves that were right on the nose. The first leg of our journey would be relatively short, 25 miles, because we got a late start that morning as we needed to access the internet weather and try one last time to extend our Bahamian visa before leaving their waters. No success with the visa as a boat load of Haitians arrived somewhere nearby and the immigration folk were in an uproar.

We made Long Island in the afternoon after tacking back and forth along our designated route. We stayed at a beautiful beach at Hog Cay. The picture doesn’t do it justice. The next morning bright and early we left for Rum Cay. A great trip with both fishing rods out. We must have had 3-4 hits before we got into a school of mahi mahi. First one rod started to sing and before we could get more than 10 feet of line in the second one started to tear of line. Liz proceeded to slowly bring in the first fish while I tried to bring in the second on the lighter rod. Both fish were jumping and in the end the one on the lighter rod got away. Liz brought hers in close to the boat and we got it on board. A nice 8-10 pound mahi. Cleaned it that afternoon when we got into Rum Cay and had it that night for supper. Better than anything we have had in any restaurant. A 6 foot nurse shark cleaned up the mess we had thrown overboard. Talk about efficient garbage service.

We left Rum right after supper on our first overnight passage. Both of us were quite nervous as we hadn’t ever done this before and we did not have a buddy boat with us. The conditions were perfect. Almost flat seas with no chop but a 4 foot easy swell that didn’t give us any problems. Winds were light so we were motor sailing with full sails up and we were doing more than 7 knots most through the night. Instead of arriving at our next destination in the middle of the afternoon, we arrived at the Plana Cays at day break. Both of us had napped during the night and sunrise was a spectacular and welcome sight. We decided to keep going right on through to Mayaguana and arrived in the middle of the afternoon to enjoy a dip in the water before having supper and getting to sleep before our last step of the trip. The dolphins we saw as we were coming in unfortunately did not come around the boat.

We left Mayaguana at midnight and wished each other a Happy New Year. We believe that we saw the fireworks at the Turks and Caicos reflected off the clouds on the horizon to the south. As we weighed anchor the bioluminescence in the water was spectacular. So its 2:00 AM, I’m watching the meteorites zipping across the sky, Liz is having a nap on one of the cockpit cushions, there is very little wind and we’re making our way south at 6 knots using the engine. After having worried about the first night passage, this second one is peaceful and enjoyable. We left in the middle of the night because we wanted to arrive first thing in the morning before the convection winds started to blow from the east over the shallow Caicos Bank.

Our next big step will be to jump to the Dominican Republic from the Turks and Caicos, another 80 mile passage in very open water. After having sailed in the Bahamas where the water is very shallow, to be in several thousand feet of water is also a little unnerving. The deep blue colour of the water is also something we’ll both remember. Time to get back to the helm.

Georgetown and the Tuna

2008-12-24T11:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-06T17:59:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

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