Weather

More Wind, And Two Close Calls

/ kk42sealife / Leave a comment

The winds picked up again last weekend, and we are now on day eight of strong winds, this time from southerly directions. Fortunately, the Hulk continues to keep us put, but there is always worry about another boat  dragging anchor, and hitting you along the way.  We had two close calls this week, with the same boat!

Unfortunately, most of the boats here do not light their anchor lights at night. This is both frustrating and scary for us. It makes it virtually impossible to see the boats at night. During strong winds, you may not see someone who has come loose and is dragging toward you. Or, if you’re the one dragging,  you cannot see that you may be about to hit another boat. It’s just as frustrating for us to come back through the anchorage on the dingy at night. By the time you see a boat, you’ve usually come to close for comfort.

A 38′ steel sailboat from Germany arrived on Sunday, after a passage from Honduras. It anchored ahead of us, just before sunset. The winds were consistently in the low 30 knot range, so Scott spent the night in the pilot house, checking our position (which I think insults the Hulk, but you can never be too safe) and scanning the anchorage through binoculars (which throws a bit more light onto the area).

Just after midnight, the newly anchored boat let loose and started to drift back quickly. She missed us by 15 feet, which was way too close! Scott lost sight of it, as the south winds pushed her toward the north end of the island.

However, she was back the next morning, again anchored ahead of us. With the winds still at their strongest, Scott spent another sleepless night in the pilothouse. Again, the boat broke loose, and at about 3am she missed us by 12 feet! After Scott restarted his heart, he watched the boat drag back and get stuck aground on the snorkel area behind us.

The next morning, five dingys descended on the boat, and made several attempts to free her from the shallow water. There appeared to be way too many chiefs, and few Indians in the group, so Scott stayed put. They managed to free her for a minute, but the anchor wasn’t up in time, and it got stuck hard on something below. We saw someone go into the water to try and free it, but he had no luck. The anchor was cut loose, with a float to mark where it was, for more retrieval efforts later.

Finally,  the poor boat was pushed and pulled free, and the fleet of dingys dispersed back to their boats. As she made her way past us, Scott cringed at the thought of her anchoring anywhere near us again. Thankfully, she made her way back to the lagoon, which is a bit better protected from wind.

We found out later that on night number two, the two girls who arrived on the boat weren’t even aboard. They had spent the night aboard another boat, which made Scott livid. Had they stayed in the anchorage near us, I’m sure that he would have confronted them about being so careless. I was grateful that they’d headed for the lagoon.

Thankfully, the strongest winds have passed, and Scott is back to getting a full night’s sleep.

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

 

Back To Isla

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The forecast calls for winds to be stronger out of the south this weekend. We didn’t have protection from that direction, and Scott’s faith in the mooring ball in any wind was slim. There is a marina nearby, but it’s a bit out of town, and we’d rather save the dollars. So…we headed back to Isla Mujeres.

It was disappoing not to have more time in this cute town. We arrived on Monday afternoon, and didn’t get into town until Tuesday afternoon (i am battling the last part of a cold, and couldn’t muster the energy until then). With Scott wanting to get some snorkeling in, we had little time time in town on Wednesday and Thursday.

We’d just gotten the lay of the land, and now it was time to head back north. Even though our first few meals weren’t the greatest, we would have liked more time to explore the local haunts, and enjoy some beach time. However, as I’ve said before, the weather rules us now..so off we went.

With winds building in the next few days, we chose to leave this morning. The forecast called for light and variable winds, and things had been calm during our past few days in Puerto Morelos. We started out for a smooth trip north. However, once we rounded the reef, things got bumpy and stayed that way…unnervingly so. I haven’t met a cruiser yet who enjoys a head sea, and we were in a fairly unruly one. It was so frustrating! The winds were blowing at only five knots, but we were in large swells, with the bow up…and then down. Howard was very irritated by it, and I started to worry he’d throw up. I too was irritated….Scott, was out in the cockpit fishing.

The first two hours were pretty crappy, then it finally settled a bit. We went in and out of two more rough patches, before smoothing out for good. I kept getting comments from the “peanut gallery,” aka, the cockpit: “I think it’s starting to calm down.” It wasn’t:…”Seems like it’s getting better out here.” It wasn’t, at least not from where Howard and I sat in the pilot house!

We’re finally learning that when you come into and out of a current in this area, the seas change for the worst. At one point, we came into a washing machine of waves and white caps. Ahead, you could see where it ended and smoother water began, so we just waited it out. Scott thinks that we’d gone into an eddy current, a smaller current that spins off of a larger one. I like the “smaller” part of that thought.

On the fishing front, we traveled out to water over 900 feet, but came up short. Scott had his bait out for mahi and larger type fish, but the season is just about over for mahi. He was hesitant to change bait, worried he’d reeling in God knows what. I think he was just enjoying time in the cockpit.

The resorts that cram Cancun’s coast came into sight, as we approached the area leading to Isla Mujeres.

As we got closer to Isla, Howard sat up and began to sniff the air. I think it was familiar to him. We’ve spent five weeks here so far, so I’m guessing it smelled like “home”..perhaps we’re growing roots!

We traveled past the crowded beaches, ferry terminal and a tour boat or two as we approached the anchorage. There were three or four new boats, but Scott was thrilled that the spot we’d previously been anchored in was still available.

As soon as the anchor chain released, Howard made it known that he was hungry. After that, he spent hours outside, and realized  that our inflatable dingy that was stored on the side deck  made a good jungle gym.

Scott was not amused…cat..claws..inflatable. However, play concluded without incident.

We are now back in the company of the fleet.

We’ll spend some more time here before clearing out of the country and heading toward Honduras. Here are a few more photos of our trip back to Isla.

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

 

Our Days In Isla Mujeres

/ kk42sealife / 2 Comments

Catching you up on the last week at anchor here in Isla…

We started our week with, what else, A COLD FRONT! These are getting SO old! This particular one was going to come from the northwest. We were facing southeast with zero wind, and then like a light switch the winds shifted 180 degrees and came from the northwest at 30+ knots. Of course, it happened at night, when it’s more challenging to keep an eye on your location, and that of others around you.

Scott had been nervous about this front for two reasons. First, we’d heard that the anchor holding here was bad, and that boats regularly drag. Second, strong wind swinging you 180 degrees tends to dislodge an anchor. As the front slammed  into the anchorage, our iPad app that we use to track the anchor showed that it was skipping a bit. My stomach sunk at the thought of having to pull up and re-anchor in the dark with 30 knot winds. Scott decided to wait, and see if it continued. The Hulk skipped about 50 feet and then had enough, and dug in hard.

We stayed up until 1am, making sure that the Hulk was happy, and that others in the anchorage were safe and secured. Scott got some brief sleep in the pilot house until daylight. After listening to the cruiser’s net (no way I could sleep through that!), we crawled back into bed to catch up a bit. Since then, the week has been full of fronts coming through, bringing moderate winds and chop to the anchorage. Life as usual this winter!

Speaking of chop, as I mentioned before, we are anchored alongside the I-95 for tour, fishing and charter boats. All sizes pass by us, usually at higher speeds than they should. For the most part, it’s tolerable, but some of them really give us a roll.

What is amazing and entertaining is the amount of catamaran party boats that pass us, and how full they are! They are stuffed with people, so full that they are sitting on the roof and hanging over the sides.

It’s fun to watch the passengers as the catamarans go by, to see who’s already feeling the effects of the rum punch…we’ve seem some entertaining dancers! The music is also interesting. Loud, dance club-type music..all the time. We can hear them coming way before they pass by. Scott likes to say that it’s always 3am  here!

So the last week has been spent exploring the island, visiting  local restaurants and meeting some new people. We’ve found that that things are pretty darned cheap when you use pesos, while using the US dollar doesn’t get you the best price (up to 20% more than using pesos!), so we quickly made a stop at the money exchange store in town, and are now spending like locals!

We have left our bikes at Marina Paraiso, and when we dingy to the southern end of the island, they are there for us to go to the big grocery store, or to just ride the island. When heading to the downtown area, there is a dock next to one of the commercial fishing piers that cruisers can tie to. We have become pretty familiar with the downtown area, and are taking more time to explore the southern part of the island lately.

The town celebrated carnival, in the days leading up to lent. Scott and I went to shore on Sunday afternoon, to watch one of the parades. The costumes and dancing were pretty neat.

But what was more entertaining was the overall organized chaos of the whole thing. Beer was an integral part, with participants drinking it before, during and after the parade, usually while catching a ride to or from their place with a group. (Notice the beer in her hand)

Support beer cart..

We watched an entire fleet of dressed dancers on scooters ride up into the parade, get dropped off to dance and then picked back up and whisked away. Strange.

There was never an official “start” to the parade, with huge gaps between floats and dancers (luckily, that gave us plenty of time to run across the street for 2.00 beers, or next door to the ferry terminal for their restrooms). Outnumbering the parade’s numerous performers and participants, where the many, many “support” vehicles and people walking alongside on the sidewalk. We guessed that the people walking alongside must be parents…all of the parents, by their numbers. The support vehicles carried giant speakers blaring music at deafening levels and much, much beer. After awhile, the parade was randomly diverted by police onto a different street. I guess they’d used up the allotted time??

We decided it was a good time to head back to the dingy, as we’d been invited to meet other cruisers to watch some of the Superbowl at a nearby bar. The winds kicked up quite a bit while we were there, dropping the temperatures. Scott got downright cold, wishing he’d worn his foul weather coat to block the winds rushing into the open bar. As his shivering got worse, we called it a night and headed back to the boat, timing our climb back on board in between waves.

On Monday, Scott and I biked some of the southern end of the island. We had lunch at Oscar’s, where  cruisers in the area meet for Pizza Friday. Since we plan to do that this week, I enjoyed shrimp for lunch.

Afterward, we made our way to the eastern side of the island. While enjoying views of the coastline, I noticed Villa Bella. It appeared that there was a bar, and it was public, so of course we went to investigate.

our village

The small property is beautiful and relaxing (no one under 18, and no groups of people over four in number), with many “island” details.

They have a Cadillac margarita, that contains two shots of aged tequila, a shot of Cointreau, fresh squeezed lime and a shot of Grand Marnier on the side; there is a limit of two per person. Although Scott was very tempted, we opted for the regular margaritas, going easy on both the wallet and our livers. The drinks came in neat coconut glasses, and Scott soaked up some warmth from the full sun, as we’re still waiting for it to act like winter here in Mexico!

Oh, on a happy, happy note, we have solved our washer problem! Scott finally heard back from technical support. Based on the email, he was able to figure out that our washer doesn’t like Mexican electricity(??). If we run the washer on our inverter it works like a charm, go figure! So no more bucket washing for me, and we save many dollars not having to order a control panel! We just have to time washing on sunnier days, to take advantage of power from the solar panels…fair enough!

So life here at anchor is rolling…literally. Here are some photos.

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

Our Time At Anchor In The Dry Tortugas

/ kk42sealife / 1 Comment

Knowing that we didn’t have the weather to get all the way to Mexico, we went as far as the Dry Tortugas, to wait there for our next window. It ended up being two long, challenging weeks of wind and cold fronts.

At least three back door cold fronts (unusual weather, that we are learning about), generated by low pressure systems, came through while we were anchored (it may have been four, but we lost count or blocked it out). All had winds that were sustained in the 30 knot range, with gusts in the 40s, and our favorite, that had sustained 40 knot winds, with gusts up to 56. We have come to realize that after 25 knots, the sound of wind becomes unnerving…very unnerving, especially when it blows consistently for days. One front would come right on the heels of the previous one, giving us barely a day of relief in between.

We weren’t alone in our frustration with the fronts. When we’re at anchor, the vhf radio stays on scan, to hear any talk between boats or any information from the Coast Guard. Large commercial shrimp boats were continuously talking back and forth, about how unusual this string of weather was. Many hadn’t even left their docks to go out, and many were anchored on the other side of the reef from us, waiting out the weather and wind for days. Their conversations back and forth were very entertaining for us. They managed to swear in all forms of grammar!

With the waves crashing on the reef in front of them, it appeared as if they were underway.

On our side of the reef, we were surrounded by smaller commercial fishing boats. Our first night at anchor, we had eighteen of them around us..close quarters! Most all would leave during the day to fish, and then return for the evening, except during the exceptionally windy days, when everyone would stay put.

There were only one or two other cruising boats at any given time. At the first 24 hour break in the weather, they would leave (we guessed for Key West, as it was close and reachable before the next front) and one or two more would show up.

So, we’re stuck in place because of strong winds, and have seen all that the fort and the small island that it sits on has to offer. Even if we wanted to go to shore, most days were just too rough to get into the dingy and make the unpleasant ride. Oh, and did I mention that these fronts contained no sun??!!?? Seriously, if you add up the hours of sunshine that we had, it would just total 24..in fourteen days! The temperatures were colder than normal, in the low 70s, but that was the least of the unpleasantness. So what do you do to pass time??

When it was decent to get to shore, we spent a day touring the fort with Ranger Mike, and afterward spent 7.00 each to have lunch aboard the ferry that comes from Key West every day. Scott made the world’s largest sandwich, and I had seconds of both tuna and potato salad, so we got our money’s worth. Another day, we went to shore and walked around on our own, seeing some things that Ranger Mike didn’t cover. Then we joined him for a tour around the fort’s moat, learning about the various fish and coral that surround it. After that, it there wasn’t much to do ashore, and most days it was too windy and bumpy to get in the dingy and make the journey there anyway.

Motivation was nil, so we ended up watching a lot of tv and movies on dvd. I’d like to say we caught up on sleep, but the noise of the wind outside, the water slapping against the hull, and the sound of the water in our full tanks slapping back and forth made for a restless night’s sleep. Wind that sounds like a train, slapping noise and rolling from water (inside and out), cool temperatures, cloud-filled days, and peaks of sun that just mocked us. By day eight, madness was starting to set in.

Thankfully, during our last days, we met and spent time with a Danish couple…yay!…social interaction! Henrik and Signe were waiting for an opening to head toward Cuba. They have been cruising for three years, making their way across the Atlantic and spending time from New York City down along the East Coast before meeting us at anchor in the vortex of crappy weather.

There was a very important silver lining in the two weeks of madness. Our anchor, the Incredible Hulk, held like a champ. Like our windy days spent in the Exumas, it didn’t drag once! When we drop anchor, Scott sets a point on the ipad for both the anchor and the boat itself. If the anchor is holding, we should make an arc as the wind swings us. Scott would set a point every time the boat moved, to track our swing. We would take the ipad to bed with us, checking during the night to see if the boat was moving out of the arc path. We made a 360 degree swing every time that a cold front came through. The hulk held fast through it all. Here is our circle…

I apologize for my initial “Are you serious??” comment, at the size and cost of this anchor. It is now my favorite part of this boat! As the sounds of the wind frazzled us more and more, confidence in our anchor grew with each front.

Here are some photos that we took during our two week stay off of Fort Jefferson. For you non cat people, I apologize for so many of Howard. We were stuck aboard for two weeks, with little to amuse us!

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

Hola Mexico!

/ kk42sealife / 5 Comments

We are in Mexico!! After two long weeks of waiting  for decent weather and winds to continue to Isla Mujeres, a tight window finally appeared. It wasn’t the best scenario, so we discussed our options:
1 – Head to Mexico, and hope that the weather forecast was correct, knowing that it wouldn’t be the smoothest journey.
2 – Go back to Florida and get a mooring ball(in Ft. Myers) and wait for the endless string of cold fronts to slow down, most likely taking a month. We’d spend money that was meant for Mexico, need an additional 18+ hours to get there and have a month less time to get past Costa Rica before hurricane season sets in.
3 – Stay  anchored off of Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas national park. We’d endure at least two – three more weeks of cold fronts at anchor, losing what was left of our sanity (more on our time at anchor here later).

Scott left the decision up to me, releasing himself of blame from whatever option was chosen. None of them were good, in my opinion. I definitely didn’t want to spend unplanned money or go backward and add time to our Mexico trip, so option two was out. The thought of staying two or three more weeks at anchor where we were made me crazy, but I was very nervous to continue on with the current weather window. After much back and forth, I told myself that we’d chosen the Krogen for it’s seaworthiness, and crossing conditions weren’t always (almost never) going to be perfect, so on to Mexico it was!

Knowing that the sea conditions in the area still weren’t great (the winds had died, but swells take more time to settle), we left Sunday at noon. A cold front with strong winds was coming to Isla Mujeres on Wednesday, and we wanted to arrive ahead of it. The plan was to leave in  “bumpier” water, and eventually have it get better as we traveled. We  hoped to be at the marina in Isla Mujeres sometime on Tuesday afternoon.

Scott had a track mapped out which would take us southwest toward Cuba, more westward off of Cuba, south once we rounded Cuba and then west  toward Mexico, before heading north to Isla Mujeres. It wasn’t the most direct path, but he chose this route to try  and cross the Gulf Stream current  (which would oppose us and slow us down) as quickly as possible, and then stay in it’s counter current, keeping our speed up. We also planned to travel with our motor at a higher rpm than normal, hoping to stay at 6 knots or above and make our arrival window in Isla Mujeres before the coming cold  front.

Once  out of the reef around our anchorage, we realized that the waters were more than bumpy. The swells were pretty large, close to nine feet. It was quite an adjustment, but swells aren’t as jolting as waves, so we rolled our way toward the waters off of Cuba. We traveled at 8 and 7 knots for the first seven hours, which was great! I came on for my shift at dark, and things settled down over night to a much more comfortable ride.

At one point, a boat appeared on the radar about four miles off of our port side. After some time, it dropped back behind us, and then headed off of our starboard side and off of the radar. Scott assumed that it was the Coast Guard, making sure that we weren’t headed to Cuba.

By daylight the winds had calmed even more, and we enjoyed a terrific ride for most of the day. Scott was even tempted to make a drink and enjoy some time up on the bow! All good things come to an end however, and by late afternoon, the winds had increased again. Scott took us closer to Cuba than expected, trying to get some protection from the building winds. We were about 14 miles  off of the coast and still in the counter current, making about 8 knots.

When I came on again at dark on Monday evening, our ride was getting more “spirited,” as Scott likes to call it. We were rounding the western coast of Cuba and heading south, still in the counter current and still making good speed. Wind and waves continued to build, and it felt at times like we were on a roller coaster ride, rising and falling, and then jolting from side to side suddenly along the way.

Once in awhile we’d get a really good roll (or should I say jolt)to the side, which would wake Scott. He would come up and make a course change, trying to smooth things out a bit. It would be effective for awhile, and then we’d start to hard roll again, and he’d have to readjust. He’d planned to turn more south overnight, but it would have put us in a pretty big beam sea (side to side) even with our paravanes out, so we stayed where we were.

I stayed on watch for eleven hours overnight, trying to give Scott a chance to rest and stay out of the pilot house as much as possible. By 2am or so, things started to calm down a bit, and I think he  got some bits of actual sleep. At 6:30am, when Scott came back on watch, I was looking forward to some actual sleep myself, in calmer conditions. That lasted all of 40 minutes.

I awoke to  another, bigger, faster roller coaster ride. Knowing that Scott would call if he needed me, and not wanting to see what was causing the roller coaster ride (I had a sleep mask on, to keep daylight out, and also the site of big waves), I stayed on the couch, which was a bit challenging.

We were rolling so hard that the couch was trying to move, even though Scott had it screwed down. The same was true for our table, that was tied to the wall. It was doing it’s best to come across the saloon toward me. Our end table moved back and forth so much that one of the legs unscrewed itself. Thankfully, I had stuffed towels into the refrigerator and some of the cabinets, to keep the clanking of bottles down.

When I finally couldn’t hold off  a trip to the head any longer, I made my way there with the sleep mask on, not wanting to catch any glimpse of what was going on outside through windows. I managed to feel my way there and back,  flopping onto the couch and assuming a braced position on my side.

I kept waiting and waiting for the winds to calm as I laid on the couch, trying to hold on without getting my fingers pinched as it tried to move back and forth. After almost four hours, things seemed somewhat better, so I ventured up to the pilot house  to see how Scott was faring. I learned that my decision to stay put, with my mask on, was a wise one. We had come into big, BIG seas. Our autopilot was working, but Scott had to constantly change course, to keep the confused seas on our stern, so he ended up hand steering through it.

Scott estimated that the waves were as high as 14 feet. My husband doesn’t exaggerate, or embellish for effect. Believe me, we’d much rather brag that we had glass calm seas! The waves around us were larger and higher than our boat. Scott’s eye level is approximately 12 feet off of the water line when at the wheel, and the waves were well above his eye level. He’d see the wall of water coming at him, and then a hole would open and our boat would go through. Waves were  higher than our flybridge on all sides.

We would roll to about 30-35 degrees, and hold there, until another wave came from behind to push us back. At some points, the waves were large enough and steep enough that we were sliding down them sideways. Again, I was VERY happy to have been down on the couch, with my mask on….can you say heart attack at sea?! During all of this madness, our speed went down to as low as 3 knots, when we weren’t surfing down a wave at 9!

We were still clawing our way south. Every time Scott would change course, the waves and winds would pick up again and we’d have to adjust back to the north. There is an entrance to Isla Mujeres from the north, but a sandbar runs across it. Scott was worried about waves from the large swells breaking  on the sandbar, causing us to drop and hit bottom, or causing our paravanes to hit bottom, so we stayed on course for a southern entrance. By noon, things had calmed to a  “normal”, big roll, and we were approximately two hours or so from Isla Mujeres. Those last two hours felt like two days! Seas were still big, and we were still fighting our way south.

FINALLY, Isla Mujeres came in sight!

As we moved behind it, the waves died down from protection of land, and we picked up some current that pushed us back up to 8 knots…thank the Lord! We had to bring the birds in, as we came into waters below 25 feet or so. To do this, the boat has to be at idle and pointed into the wind. Thankfully, as the waves  had died considerably, this went really smoothly. We’ll take smooth wherever we can get it! Scott also raised the paravanes up, to prepare for coming into a slip.

We made our way past beaches and hotels along the shoreline, and into the harbor of Isla Mujeres. After finding Marina Paraiso, we tied to the end of a pier, to await our slip assignment and instructions on how to proceed with customs (more on this later). We arrived at the dock at 3pm on Tuesday, 51 hours after raising anchor in the Dry Tortugas.

Looking back at those few hours of stress and worry in huge seas, we realize how great our boat handled it. Had Scott not hand steered, it still would have been fine. He was just trying to make it somewhat more comfortable for us. We could have let it continue on autopilot, and would have made our destination with no problem. This  boat has crossed the Atlantic with a previous owner, without paravane stabilization, so a few hours of 14 foot seas was probably just a blip on it’s radar.

The best that Scott can figure, is that the high waves were caused by a combination of depth change (as we entered more shallow waters) and eddy currents (currents that spin off of a main current) opposing the  25 knots winds. All of these factors came together at the right time to cause large, confused seas.

Howard weathered the trip like a champ, enduring it better than us! He was tucked into his “triangle of safety” on the pilot house bench, where he now spends long passages.

When we had a sudden roll, or a wave would break on us, he’d raise his head, eyes wide. We just had to pet him a few times and tell him he was fine, and he’d settle back into his travel coma (not drug induced this time!). I don’t think he was actually getting much sleep either, more like just trying to get through it, like the rest of us.

Now that it’s all behind us, we’re  thrilled to be here! I will be posting about our trip from Key West to the Dry Tortugas, and our two weeks at anchor there soon, as well are our customs experience. For now, we’re still getting settled here, washing our salt covered boat, doing laundry, orienting ourselves to the area, etc. Hurra Mexico!

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

 

Exumas To Key West

/ kk42sealife / 4 Comments

We have been in Key West, Florida for almost a week, and I finally have a chance to sit down and catch you up on our journey here.

Our last ten days in the Exumas were frustrating. We had strong, sustained winds for seven straight days, out of nine. The noise of the wind was terribly unnerving, and the slapping of the waves against the Aluminum Princess tied behind us added to the madness. By day five or so, I resorted to blasting music to try and drown it all out. We’d hoped to get to one or to more cays during our stay, but time was getting short. The check in date for our slip in Key West was getting close, and the weather window for good gulf stream travel was very small. The weather in the Exumas was calming down, but there was a cold front predicted for the Florida area, bringing rain, storms and winds in the 30mph range.  We decided to do a 50 hour run straight through to Key West, and hopefully keep ahead of the front.

At 6am on Tuesday, we pulled up our anchor and started the long journey to the keys that would take us across the Bahama Bank, up the Tongue of the Ocean, back across the bank and then into the Atlantic, crossing the gulf and continuing on in the Atlantic to Key West.

The Bahama Banks is similar to the Chesapeake Bay, in that it is an overall shallow body of water, averaging less than 30 feet. Because it is shallow, waves are closer together, or have a “shorter wave period.” This is can quickly become unnerving and uncomfortable, which it did (for me). Unfortunately, we could not deploy our paravanes in less than 30 feet, to avoid them possibly hitting bottom as we roll. So, we rolled our way across the banks.

I was watching the depth finder like a hawk, and as soon as we approached the Tongue of the Ocean, and deep water, I shouted out for the paravanes. As Scott suspected, our trip up the tongue was “spirited.” The winds had finally calmed down after seven days, but it takes water longer to settle. Even with the paravanes deployed, we were really moving about. I worried that it would get worse, not better as we approached our second banks crossing. Scott predicted that it would settle by the time we hit the banks, and it did…in time for him to go off watch and to sleep, lucky dog!

Of course, as we approached the Atlantic things picked up again. We consistently rolled, As a result, I didn’t enjoy the calm-water sleep that Scott had. It wasn’t as bad as we’d had in the tongue, and I eventually got used to it, keeping in mind that the boat will take way more than I am comfortable with!

Howard bounced back to his old travel self, and again wanted to be in the pilot house with us, where he assumed is “trucker” pose on the bench.

As it got more rough, we made a “triangle of safety,” to keep him from sliding back and forth as he slept. He approved.

Since we were traveling in the deep waters of the Atlantic and the gulf stream, Scott decided to set the fishing rods out and see if he could get a bite. About an hour later, one of the reels started spinning, and he’d caught a mahi mahi (dolphin fish)! I was then berated with commands…”FISH ON!! FISH ON!! PUT IT IN NEUTRAL, BRING THE GAS DOWN, COME REEL IN THIS OTHER LINE, GET THE CAMERA, OPEN THE TRANSOM DOOR, MAKE SURE HOWARD STAYS INSIDE!!” I tried to do all of these things at once, running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.  Scott reeled the mahi in toward the boat, and as he went to gaff it (a pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab the fish and then lift it into the boat) the  fish slipped off of the lure. ARRGHH!! He reset the line, and it was back to the drawing board.

Not 30 minutes later….FISH ON!!

This time, I handled my ten jobs at once much better, and Scott decided to pull the mahi into the cockpit and then kill it. The fish was pretty sizable, and was still putting up a fight. I ran inside and closed the screen door, not wanting to entertain a mahi in the saloon! Scott quickly killed it…our first fish!!

 

At 7pm on night two, Scott came on watch. I stayed up until about 8:30, and then went down to try and catch a nap in the saloon (I have trouble sleeping in our bed when we’re underway, too much movement down there). An hour later, I woke up to a new noise in the cockpit. When I called up to Scott about it, he informed me that it was our flag, whipping in the increased winds, and that we were coming into a thunderstorm. Thunderstorm….in the dark. I rolled over, and prepared for terror, Howard ran up to the pilot house with Scott!

We were in the storm for almost 45 minutes. The winds quickly kicked up to 60mph, and the waves grew so much that Scott had to bring the motor speed down. At almost idle speed, the boat slammed up and down less. It was a challenge for Scott, not being able to see the waves, and it was also the strongest winds we’ve ever been in, but eventually the storm passed. Scott increased our speed, and we continued on. Howard weathered the storm out in the triangle of safety.

At approximately 2:30 am on Thursday, we were off the coast of Key Largo, and made our turn to continue another six or so hours to Key West. I was on watch, and noticing lightening off to our port side. Scott was sleeping on the bench behind me, and said that it was most likely in the gulf and would stay there. However, by the time my watch ended, just before 6am,  rain  was again appearing on our radar and the lightening was now visible in front of us as well as to our port side.

We were back in range for cell service, so Scott pulled up radar on the internet. A MASSIVE front was moving toward us, full of red and yellow precipitation. I immediately felt nauseous. The thought of going through this thing terrified me. After viewing it for some time, Scott was fairly confident that we could beat the worst of it to Key West, and get tied up in time to ride out the rest. So the race was on! He chose a quicker route that required us to maneuver through some crab pots, but we’re very experienced with that, having cruised the Chesapeake for so long!

We were now moving against the current, so our speed was  down. It felt like we would never get there! After 52  hours and another, bigger pending storm, I was done. Finally, we turned into slip A-7 at the Key West Bight Marina, and tied Sea Life to the pier. Thankfully, the worst of the front stayed to the west of us, and we just had some light off and on rain until evening.

So, we’d traveled 52 hours straight..our longest leg yet! We arrived at 8:30am on Thursday, and by the time we tied up and got the systems running on shore power and such, it was 10:30; we were zombies. There was debate as to whether to sleep until the afternoon, but we decided to go into town for lunch, have a few celebratory beers and try and stay up until late afternoon. We made it until 6pm, and then collapsed for 12 hours of straight sleep.

We are here in Key West for the month, and look forward to holiday events and visitors from home!

Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

 

 

 

A Rainy, Squall-ly Day

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A strong cold front has been moving our way. The winds started to build Saturday evening, and yesterday we had a cloudy, windy day. This morning, the cold front officially arrived.

Here is where we are on the map, and it shows the front passing us (tongue of the ocean is to the left).

We had steady 30 knot wind, with gust to 42, as shown on Scott handy weather monitor (he loves it).

Nothing dangerous, but it was nice to see how our anchor and chain responded. It was also good to see that no one around us had an anchor drag, which can be common in a storm.

We have had some really warm temperatures since coming to the Bahamas. Our daily highs range from the mid 80s to the low 90s. The afternoon high in our saloon usually gets to 86 (we don’t have air conditioning at anchor).

Needless to say, we were ready for a temperature drop. So when the squall came through, Scott said that God turned on the air conditioning! We woke up to 84 degrees, and the squall knocked it down to 78. It  is after 3pm, and our temperature is at 80, which is a nice break!

We have come to realize that in the islands, the vhf radio is used in lieu of a telephone. Most days, we keep our radio on scan, so it will pick up anyone talking on it. We hear talk between employees at Fowl Key Resort next to us, as well as people contacting Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Most interesting, however, is listening to boaters talk to each other. We hear chatter about meeting for lunch, working on boats, ordering parts. etc. People also discuss where they’re headed to next, or where they’ve come from. They’ll also call to shore to make a reservation, or ask about transportation from their boat.

Conversation between the two UK boats near us is a favorite of ours (they are from Scotland),  especially as the storm came through. They commented on nearby boaters washing their sailboat in the rain (people often do this to make use of free fresh water), and how that they were surprised that the people weren’t showering in it (something that happens here regularly). Apparently, whisky is scarce aboard, but they have a friend bringing in reinforcements. All of this is of course made more entertaining with the addition of their accents!

And by the way, this guy showed up to anchor today..big! The boat to the left is the dingy, that was towed in behind him. Once they are anchored, it will tie up next to them.

So, we have our first rainy day since mid September. Scott is on a Black Sails viewing marathon, and I am blogging and baking. By the way…even through clouds and rain, the water still a beautiful blue!

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

 

 

 

 

At Anchor In The Exumas

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We are enjoying life, anchored in this gorgeous blue water.

Scott has been snorkeling and exploring since we dropped anchor here. Some of that being under our boat! First, check out the clarity under there!

We’ve seen stingrays and hermit crabs hanging out under us, and what we thought were small sharks are actually two remoras, or suckerfish..ick! They’re two feet long..double ick!! I think I’d rather have small sharks under there. Whenever I get into the water, I’m panicked that they’re going to suck onto me. That’s a spa treatment that I’ll pass on, thank you.  As I mentioned in my previous post, A Rainy, Squall-ly Day, we’re boat bound today, so here is what we did (we’re beginners, so bear with us, we’ll get better)!

On one of his excursions, Scott went ashore and climbed to the highest point on one of the nearby cays for some photos. The path up was overgrown, and Scott had to tramp through to get his “money shots.”

On the way down, he realized that he had grabbed onto, and brushed by poisonwood on his route. He was so zeroed in on getting to the top, and to his photo site, that he hadn’t paid close attention going up.

Poisonwood is a tree similar to poison sumac, and it’s very commonly found in the Bahamas. Not good. Scott hustled back down to the Aluminum Princess, stripped down and jumped in the saltwater to rinse off. He then rinsed out his clothes and put his swim suit on to high-tail it back to the boat, where he again stripped down and showered in fresh water with soap. So far, no itchy rash, so it appears that we’re in the clear and the risk was worth the pictures!

Right near us is Pirate Island. Years ago, a cruising couple who were here on their boat (named Pirate) “developed” the beach here for cruisers to come ashore and enjoy. There are benches and tables, a bean bag toss game, lounge chairs, fire pit and a charcoal grill stocked with charcoal.

Throughout the years, those who visit maintain it, keeping the beach swept and the charcoal supply full. When you’re onboard for extended periods of time, it’s nice to have a place to go to, and be able to stretch you legs and have a cookout. In the winter months, when there are many more people here, the cruisers meet here for pot lucks and happy hours.

We are “around the corner” from Staniel Cay, and Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Their adorable cottages have been on my vacation radar for years, so I had Scott do a drive-by for me. They’re soo cute!

As usual, Howard is enjoying his happy hour stints on the pulpit.

He’s getting more and more comfortable out there, yeesh.

When we arrived, there were four other boats. There are now sixteen other boats. We attribute this to the winter season approaching, when people bring their boats here and stay for months. There is also  a strong cold front coming through, with big winds. This anchorage is pretty protected from most of it, so we’re guessing some are here to wait it out.

There are boats here with cruisers from the UK, Germany and France. The French like to bath “au natural” on their swim platform, so that’s entertaining. The “Germs,” as Scott has taken to calling them (they have a generator on their bow, and the noise annoys Scott, go figure), are getting great use of Pirate Beach. Excuse the blurry photo, but Scott could not get over how big their fire was. He was convinced that they were burning one of the tables, or had thrown their dingy onto the fire.

That’s it in a nutshell so far. Signing off with the sunset and the rest of our photos.

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”

Waiting On Kate

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So the tropical wave became a tropical depression, which quickly became Tropical Storm Kate. The forecast still had her staying east, with no immediate threat, but as the winds changed directions we would be too exposed at our anchorage. Erring on the side of caution, and not needing or wanting to take any risks this early in the game, we opted to head into Great Harbour and get a slip at Great Harbour Cay Marina.

The harbor is well protected, accessed by a cut in the island.

The marina is at the back of the harbor, surrounded by condominiums on one side, almost sitting in it’s own harbor.

The staff were more than friendly, and so were our slip neighbors who are settled here for the winter.

Once we were tied up, and the air conditioning was on (YAY!), we headed to the pool bar for a drink. The plan was to get something to eat there, but the prices were terrifically high! We had our one beer and then went to the small restaurant at the other end of the marina, about fifty steps from the boat.

Along the way, we passed many of these lines hanging in the water, loaded with live conch in their shells. We guessed that they were like the live boxes that crabbers on the Chesapeake Bay use. Hanging them in the water keeps the conch alive, but close and convenient when you want to use (aka eat) them.

With conch on the brain, we ordered conch fritters…that were awesome! Seriously, the restaurant is open for breakfast, and I was tempted to go and ask them to make me some! They didn’t offer alcohol, so Scott walked to the boat and brought back two cold beers for us to have with our conch.

Once our bellies were full, we went back to give Howard some outside time. It was his first experience with sand.

He had a ball, and eventually tried to take off across the street to get to the thicker trees and shrubs before we reigned him in. He vented his frustration with us by hissing and batting us with his paws (claws in) as we walked him  back to the boat. There was also a lot of stressful, open-mouthed panting. He really liked his taste of sandy soil.

This morning, we left the marina, and are now making a go for the Atlantic side of the Berry Islands. We’re hoping that since Kate stayed off to the east, the waves won’t be too terrible for our trip today. Fingers and paws crossed!

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”